The Children’s Society will unveil a powerful new show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show from 19 to 23 May 2026, created to spotlight the urgent issue of teenage wellbeing in the UK. Designed with young people at its heart, the garden is a space for reflection, hope and connection, inspired by the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which celebrates beauty in imperfection. Created by internationally acclaimed landscape architect Patrick Clarke, the garden delivers a clear message: young people deserve to feel safe, supported, seen and heard as they navigate today’s challenges.
Showcasing The Children’s Society Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a powerful opportunity to shine a light on the growing crisis in young people’s mental health and wellbeing.
Working with The Children’s Society, Patrick Clarke has involved young people in the design of the garden, ensuring their voices are at the heart of the space.
Through creative workshops and digital sessions, a team of Young Creative Partners are helping Patrick shape key design features, from decorative stained-glass panels and sculptures to the final planting scheme.
As well as influencing the design, these sessions give participants the chance to work with garden specialists and creative professionals, build new skills, and take pride in contributing to a space created for young people like them.
On working with the Young Creative Partners, Patrick Clarke, explains:
"The workshops allow the Young Creative Partners to contribute to important design features of the garden. I hope that this garden, and many others like it, will regenerate optimism and hope in our younger generation."
Following the show, the garden will be permanently relocated to The Children’s Society Youth Club in Leighton Buzzard, Central Bedfordshire.
Here, it will become The Children’s Society’s first outdoor wellbeing space for young people – a lasting legacy that continues to support young people.
Project Giving Back.
We are incredibly grateful to our co-funders, Project Giving Back, the grant-making charity supporting gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
"Finding beauty in imperfection." "Finding beauty in imperfection."
Meet our gardener, Patrick Clarke
Patrick Clarke is an award-winning UK landscape and garden designer with over 30 years’ experience, trained in landscape architecture, planning and urban design at the University of Greenwich, UCL and Oxford Brookes. Inspired by growing up in the Peak District, his work explores the deep connection between people, place and nature, drawing on local history and craftsmanship to create thoughtful, finely detailed designs. He is Lead Tutor on the Diploma in Garden Design at KLC in Chelsea and has won multiple awards in the UK and internationally, including for two gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show.
For more than 140 years, The Children’s Society has stood with young people when they’ve needed support.
Today, too many are struggling with mental health challenges, abuse, exploitation, or neglect — with help only being offered at crisis point. That isn’t right. But together, we can change it.
The Children’s Society meets young people where they are, tackling the issues they face and providing the early support they need to face the future with confidence. We also work to hold the government to account, pushing for policies that protect the next generation.
A future of hope and happiness belongs to every teen.
Together, we’re making that happen.
