Garden design is inherently divisive: different gardens please various tastes, and serve a range of purposes from practical to political to pulchritudinous. What to choose?

The best way to consider anything serious, according to kings and queens of yore, is to drink on it, and to think on it, on separate days.
That’s a useful approach if you’re new to the Chelsea Garden Show, but in the name of efficiency for those who can only attend for one day, drinking is a popular choice.

Next best is to watch videos snugly at home. Below is the first one that appeared when we searched on YouTube for last year’s show, which suits our research budget:

Here’s the list of Chelsea Show gardens for 2025, which is open 20-24 May for RHS members, or 22-24 May for everyone else (tickets here):

1. The King’s Trust Garden: Seeding Success
2. Boodles Raindance Garden
3. Cha No Niwa – Japanese Tea Garden
4. Children With Cancer UK – A Place To Be…
5. RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden
6. Down’s Syndrome Scotland Garden
7. Garden of the Future
8. Hospice UK: Garden of Compassion
9. The London Square Chelsea Pensioners Garden
10. Killik & Co Futureproof Garden
11. Tackle HIV Challenging Stigma Garden
12. The Addleshaw Goddard: Freedom To Flourish Garden
13. The Avanade ‘Intelligent’ Garden
14. The Glasshouse Garden
15. The Pathway Garden

Chelsea is about fashion and artistic spectacle as much as flowers.
A lot of it won’t be practical or affordable in the average garden, but seeing it all together in this “impossible dream that lasts four days” sets those precious creative juices flowing.

The inspirations behind the gardens range from life’s most important considerations to life’s most important non-feline animals:

“It’s a simple celebration of dogs, gardens, the moment. There’s no hidden symbolism or messages, it’s not a deeply serious garden.”

Monty Don, Garden Hunk

With that in mind, I present the Ashridge show garden for Chelsea 2025

Let me show you its features:

• A natural balance of chonky cats and little kitties.
• Soil is out this year, we filled our garden with ethically sourced, local peat free Saharan sand.
• Some plants in pots to qualify for the show, but honestly who has time these days?
• Ancient trees make perfect drink cabinets, and provide perches for cats.
• Garden table covered in freshly empty wine glasses for that loving life at any age look.
• Beautiful old hedges replaced with reinforced, easy to clean concrete. We don’t want to bring work home with us and neglect our cats.
• Much less work than a traditional Chelsea show garden that does exist, even if only for a moment. See one made start to finish below: