Country diary: A celebration of life on the edge | Susie White

Chelsea, London: I find myself moved by this garden that highlights the ‘edgelands’, those unprotected and modest places where nature can thrive Parakeets screech and planes rumble overhead, but my attention is on the plants at my feet: the tracery of herb robert, purple nibs of plantain, flailing bramble and bristly nettle. I’m sitting on a boulder in a clearing among hawthorn, privet and silver birch. It feels a quiet space, one you might stumble on in the woods or are drawn to when you feel low, but is in fact at the Chelsea flower show. The name of this garden is On the Edge for it evokes the edgelands, the fringes of where we live. Unprotected, modest places – not grand landscapes but ones that are close by towns and cities. Designed by Sarah Eberle, the garden marks the centenary of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the launch of the first interactive map of England’s countryside edges, a gathering of people’s stories and memories about place. Dog roses are threaded through loops and swirls of willow that flow along a drystone wall. The willow represents the hair of Gaia, a giant sleeping figure carved from fallen redwoods by the chainsaw artist Chris Wood. There’s a