Ian Price Design’s Elemental garden has won Gold in the Elements category at RHS Flower Show Tatton Park, with a little help from the world’s leading biochar company, Carbon Gold. Ian’s unique concept garden is designed around the Four Elements, with dramatic and creative designs evoking Earth, Air, Water and Fire. His ‘Elemental’ garden features breezy grasses, innovative shading, charred larch boards and a still, reflective triangular pool – a truly inspirational garden, designed to be experienced and enjoyed.

Landscapes that don’t cost the Earth

Carbon Gold’s peat-free, enriched biochar compost represents Ian’s ‘Earth’ element and is the main planting medium for the garden. Biochar is a highly porous form of charcoal used to improve soil nutrition, growing conditions and soil structure.

Enriched biochar naturally enhances soil fertility and boosts soil health. Its microscopic honeycomb-like structure provides the perfect habitat for beneficial soil microorganisms, such as mycorrhizal fungi, to flourish. It also acts like a sponge, lessening the risk of soils and composts drying out and reducing the need to water.

One tonne of carbon locked away in biochar represents three tonnes of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere

Making biochar is a simple form of carbon sequestration. It is made from any waste woody biomass that has been charred at a low temperature with a restricted supply of oxygen – a process called pyrolysis. This results in a stable form of carbon that is removed from the atmospheric carbon cycle when added to the earth.

Ian Price, show garden designer, says: “I’m pleased to be planting in this unique compost from Carbon Gold. Conceptually, it suits the show’s elements theme down to the ground and means I can plant peat-free. On a practical level, I hope my garden will not only intrigue visitors but also be a source of inspiration for their own gardens.”

Craig Sams, founder of Carbon Gold, says: “As climate change continues to loom large, it is increasingly important for garden designers to lead the way in environmentally friendly gardening. Going peat-free makes sense for biodiversity reasons, too. Encouraging healthy, fertile, carbon rich soils through the addition of biochar supports both plants and planet, with no need to compromise at all on benefits.”

About Ian Price Design:
Ian Price design is an award winning garden design practice based just outside Belfast in County Antrim. Since qualifying from Writtle College with a BSC in Landscape and Garden Design, Ian Price has won a number of awards including the ALCI (Association of Landscape Contractors of Ireland) Bog Oak Trophy. Ian has also received accolades for his show gardens in 2004, 2005 and 2011.
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