Artisan Woodland Craft Garden at the RHS Badminton Flower Show

We are proud to announce that Rachael Austin, has designed an Artisan Woodland Craft Garden for the inaugural RHS Badminton Flower Show

Commissioned by Ruskin Mill Trust, the garden has been designed to demonstrate how landscape can support young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) through meaningful engagement with nature and craft.

Rachael’s design draws on the distinctive character of the valleys surrounding Ruskin Mill College in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire. Interpreting the woodland edge as a rich, layered environment, the garden weaves together coppiced hazel, open glades, and productive planting to create a space that is both ecologically grounded and educationally purposeful.

At the heart of the scheme is the Trust’s pioneering Practical Skills Therapeutic Education (PSTE) approach. The garden provides a setting where students can work directly with raw materials, exploring the process of transforming natural resources into crafted objects. This philosophy, known as ‘Descent into Matter’ underpins the spatial and material language of the design, encouraging connection between hand, head, heart, and place.

A key aspect of the project is the collaboration between designer and students. Learners from Ruskin Mill College will contribute to the making of the garden, from cultivating plants grown on site at the college farm to demonstrating green woodworking skills during the show. Their involvement is integral to the narrative of the garden, reinforcing the value of experiential learning.

Following its debut at the inaugural RHS Badminton, (from 8–12 July 2026,) the garden will be relocated to Grace Garden School in Westbury-on-Trym, where it will continue to support therapeutic outdoor learning for children.

This project reflects Rachael Austin’s wider commitment to creating landscapes that are socially purposeful, ecologically sensitive, and rooted in craft, community, and place.