RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2024 - GOLD for Mike Lote's 'It Doesn't Have to Cost The Earth'

What a thrilling start to the show season, with Mike Lote securing an RHS Gold medal for his debut show garden 'It doesn't have to cost the Earth' at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival. 

Original sketch of 'It doesn't have to cost the Earth' 

Mike Lote and Nadine Charlton in the finished garden. Photograph Ollie Dixon
 

Designed and built by Mike, the garden incorporated lessons learned from Mike's client base as a landscaper working with customers in new build properties.  

Mike used innovative methods during construction to cause minimal disruption to the earth along with reclaimed, recycled and recyclable materials throughout the garden including the base. His planting scheme aimed to and was successful at bringing pollinators into the garden.  

Mike viewing the planting. Photograph Ollie Dixon

We started working with Mike and Nadine Charlton, Home Spring Gardens,  in September 2023 in order to grow the plant material to show standard for May 2024.  

Geum 'Scarlet Tempest', Tiarella 'Pink Skyrocket', Cirsium rivulare 'Trevor's Felley Find', 
Polemonium 'Lambrook Mauve' supplied by Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants. Photograph Ollie Dixon

Thalictrum 'Black Stockings' supplied by Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants . Photograph Ollie Dixon

 Aquilegia 'Hensol Harebell' supplied by Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants .  Photograph Ollie Dixon

Angelica archangelica; Geum 'Scarlet Tempest', Tiarella 'Pink Skyrocket', Cirsium rivulare 'Trevor's Felley Find', 
Polemonium 'Lambrook Mauve' supplied by Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants. Photograph Ollie Dixon 

It's been a great year for Mike so far, winning an Association of Professional Landscapers Award and the Matthew Bradley Memorial Cup and now his first RHS Gold medal. 

Producing a garden to this standard is an incredible achievement, and more so as Mike had no sponsor. Much of the garden was gifted or loaned by supporters, with friends and colleagues helping with the build and planting. 

While some products and plants will be returned to those who loaned them, the majority of the garden will be relocated and repurposed as a new educational hub at Woodoaks Farm which is owned by the Soil Association Land Trust. 

The plants supplied by us were:  Alchemilla sericata 'Gold Strike';  Angelica archangelica;  Anthriscus sylvestris (Ravenswing);  Aquilegia 'Hensol Harebell';  Astrantia 'Burgundy Manor'; Centaurea montana Purple ; Cirsium rivulare 'Trevor's Felley Find'; Corydalis purple form; Digitalis grandiflora;  Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae; Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum''; Geranium phaeum 'Samobor'; Geum 'Scarlet Tempest' PBR; Maianthemum stellatum;  Phlox divaricata 'Chattahoochee'; Polemonium 'Lambrook Mauve'; Semiaquilegia ecalcarata; Thalictrum 'Black Stockings'; Tiarella 'Pink Skyrocket'; Trollius chinensis 'Golden Queen'; Zizia aurea