Domoney Limited design and create showgardens for sponsors at major consumer events such as RHS Chelsea Flower Show and The Daily Mail Ideal Home Show, all of which receive phenomenal amounts of publicity. Some projects are in partnership with national publications to ensure that our sponsors reach the right audience on a mass scale. We have won 17 royal horticultural medals for our designs across the prestigious RHS flower shows. Our clients have included Daewoo, Aggregate Industries, and DMG World Media. If you are interested in creating a showgarden to promote your company and brand at the UK’s top shows and events, please visit our news page to see the opportunities available this year, or contact us for more details.

Chelsea Flower Show 2009 – sponsored by House & Garden, Moscow Garden Show, Russia
‘DANGEROUS BY DESIGN’

Fifteen live piranhas in their underwater hunting ground brought a frisson of nervous excitement to this year’s Chelsea. Here David’s second Chelsea underwater Aqua Hortus exhibit in the Grand Pavilion featured five biotopes of underwater gardens containing plant and fish specimens from all over the world including the deadly Piranha - a definite ‘first’ for Chelsea.

Each tank contained a biotope or ‘habitat’ which showcased a collection of tropical aquarium plants and live fish stock found in waterways from across the world including Africa, Asia and South America. This included plants such as Cryptocoryne (water trumpet), Nymphaea zenkeri, (the Red Tiger Lotus) from the lakes of Africa and Cardamine lyrata (Japanese cress or Chinese ivy) from Asia plus the carnivourous Utricularia gaminifolia. In addition to the ferocious piranha, each underwater ‘garden’ was populated by fish native to that region, including Cichlids from the stony lake beds of Africa, Tiger barb which swim the warm waters of Asia and popular aquarium fish like the colourful male Guppy.

David elaborated: “Underwater gardens are becoming an increasingly popular trend in homes, hotels, shops, clubs and restaurants throughout the world. The aim of this garden was also to remind us of the importance of protecting our natural waterways and the harmonious habitats of its flora and fauna.”

Aqua Hortus was situated in the Great Pavilion and sponsored by Moscow’s leading publishing and events company, WEG for the Moscow Garden Show. The RHS judges were so impressed they awarded it a GOLD medal.

Chelsea Flower Show 2009 – ‘The Ace of Spades’ Garden, sponsored by YHS, supported by Harley Davidson Motorcycles
‘DIRTY BY DESIGN’

David’s second garden at Chelsea this year was in the Urban Garden category – and was a hard and gritty garden designed for true road warriors. ‘The Ace of Spades’ - a biker’s garden, was designed with motorcycles and bikers in mind, right down to the black themed planting and nudity artwork, which turned some heads.

David’s inspiration for The Ace of Spades was listening to the ‘Motorhead’ record of the same name whilst working on his own bike at home. He explained, “It’s a bikers’ anthem and I thought that with their love of the countryside and the freedom of the open road, bikers would enjoy somewhere to kick back and relax behind the garage after a long journey – it’s a place where plants and motorcycle parts naturally share the same space.”

Designed and built in association with Yorkshire Horticultural Supplies and Harley Davidson Motorcycles, the Ace of Spades featured a predominantly black-coloured planting scheme – black bamboos, black zantedeschias and black iris - peppered with silver-coloured plants to represent the chrome trim on a motorbike.

A giant Ace of Spades on the back wall was created out of old garden spade heads (collected from gardeners in a Wyevale ‘spade swap’) and welded together by Anwick Forge in Lincolnshire. The sunken ‘pit’ contained some awe-inspiring ‘Alien’ furniture constructed from old motor parts surrounded by a wall adorned with airbrushed artwork by artist Susannah Trigg (www.triggart.co.uk). This garden won David a Silver-Gilt medal.

BBC Gardeners World Live 2009 - THE BABY BIO GARDEN
‘PROTECTING TOMORROW TODAY’

To enjoy the environment tomorrow, it must be protected today. This is the inspiration behind The Baby Bio Garden – Protecting Tomorrow Today.

Created by David in partnership with gardencare company,Bayer Garden, the garden re-used everyday products to create fun, attention-grabbing planting ideas incorporating Baby Bio - Britain’s favourite house plant food - to feed and nurture the plants. It proved that almost anything can be used to create a flourishing display.

These included fencing made from recycled polystyrene, decking from recycled plastic milk bottles, compost from recycled garden waste collections, paving from recycled and reclaimed aggregate, eco-rubber and even washing machine water features. “This was a fun garden with a serious message,” explained David.

“The garden had three ‘lifestyle pods’, each one representing an area of our carbon footprint in work, rest and play. The way we travel is epitomised by cars pumping out exhaust fumes so we took an old banger and turned it into a garden on its own, with vibrant plants emerging all over it. We are constantly throwing out all sorts of things from our home; old pots, pans and washing machines. But why not re-use them and do something fun? The same is true for what we wear; we even features a washing line full of clothes, all beautifully planted.”

“I didn’t expect people to rush home and put plants in their dishwasher. But I hope this garden made them think imaginatively to re-use everyday things!”

IDEAL HOME SHOW 2009 – SMARTER LIVING GARDENS

This year saw David design and build the central gardening feature at the 101st Ideal Home Show. Smarter Living Gardens  showcased a range of show gardens – theme of which was around the various angles on the subject of Eco Gardening. These include Oceania, Geometrica, Technoligica, and Cascade. All aimed to capture the essence and versatility of eco gardening. From small scale wind turbines to solar power and outdoor cooking and dining, these gardens were chic, eco and full of money saving ideas.

Chelsea Flower Show 2008 – BAYER ‘Aqua Hortis’ Garden

The exhibit saw David create Chelsea’s first, ever underwater garden for Bayer’s first RHS flower show project. It featured a unique display of underwater plants from all over the world.

The ‘wall’ of freshwater plants, shown individually in bespoke glass cases, resting on a bed of black volcanic aggregate and swimming with fish was striking and the display chimed perfectly with Science For A Better Life, the theme that underpins all Bayer’s activity.

Tommy Gill, Head of Bayer Garden said: “This is our first time at the Chelsea Flower Show, so it was a very proud moment when we heard we’d been awarded a Silver Gilt medal. There has been a real buzz around the stand with fellow exhibitors expressing how pleased they are to see something refreshing and new at the show. It is a great achievement and reflects the hard work and dedication expressed by David and the team in creating the display.”

Hampton Court Palace 2008 – The ‘Croft Spot Secret Garden’

In 2008, Croft Sherry again chose David to design a garden for them at the prestigious Hampton Court Flower Show. The ‘Croft Spot Secret Garden’ was designed by David to embody the feeling you get from a chilled glass of Croft. Stillness, peace and tranquility could be found at the garden’s secluded centre. Wandering along the path enjoying the ornamental displays via the summerhouse to discover its secret heart – an armillary sundial surrounded by bamboo and globe-trained topiary. The perfect spot in which to enjoy a chilled glass of delicious and relaxing Croft Sherry.

The garden featured a plethora of Agapanthus, herbaceous perennials native to South Africa, complimented by the long-leafed Phormium, originally from New Zealand. Bamboo surrounded the inner ‘hidden garden’ and still holds one of the abiding mysteries of the plant world. Some of the species have long mass-flowering intervals, (up to 130 years), and bloom simultaneously regardless of differences in geographic location or climate. This ‘alarm clock’ mechanism is still a secret Bamboo has kept to itself, but gives another layer of meaning to Croft’s own Secret Garden.

BBC Gardeners World Live 2008 - BAYER ‘SITUS HORTIS’

In contrast to the award-winning Underwater Garden, created for Chelsea the same year, David went to the other end of the scale to create a garden that could survive on little or no water!
The garden - imaginatively created on a lone desert highway setting – featured cacti and succulents like Agaves, Aloe Vera and Crassula (the Money Plant) - some of Britain’s favorite houseplants - a wide range of drought tolerant plants from around the world that have successfully adapted themselves to the most hostile of growing conditions.

Designed around rock formations and an arid desert like, sandy terrain, planting was as one would expect in these climates and mainly featuring cactus and succulent varieties that all displayed a phenomenal ability to survive and reproduce in extreme low water locations.

This garden won David and the team a Gold Medal and additional award for The Most Innovative Garden at the show.

IDEAL HOME SHOW 2008 – Garden Solutions Exhibit

As part of the Ideal Home Centenary Show in 2008, David designed the Garden Solutions Exhibit: a collection of 4 themed gardens focusing on the twin issues of problem-solving and making your garden look good, giving step-by-step guides and tricks of the trade.
Each garden focused on one of the following themes:
The Eco-garden, an ever more important topic, demonstrated how solar power can be used to generate electricity for the shed and green house and how to catch rainwater and re-use domestic water. Featuring examples of how compost can recycled garden waster and feed the soil too, and some fun ideas including a bench made from recycled milk cartons.

The Family Garden was designed to keep all ages happy. The children’s area had bark flooring made of rubber, and adult's area was designed for entertaining while an ingenious “bonding” zone allowed parents and children to relax and play games together.

The Shady Garden tacked the problem of garden is dark or built up positions and showed a range of solutions to help bring more light in. These included using light-coloured paving and natural coloured timber instead of dark-stain, carefully placed spotlights and a light reflecting water feature.

Finally, the Small Garden tackled the common difficulties of small garden plots, often urban, and demonstrated how you can make the most of the available space by using mirrors to give the illusion of a bigger garden, laying paving on the diagonal, growing plants upwards as well as horizontally and creating texture and movement by using garden wall art.

BBC Gardeners World Live 2007 – The Croft Spot ‘Tranquility Garden’
This was designed to help visitors experience harmony and balance of the inner self in a garden full of soft tones and soothing smells, based around the Chinese symbol of Yin and Yang.

Where there was light the area was balanced with shadow; where there was soft it was balanced with hard – two opposites making a whole. Fragrant plants produced evocative smells to seduce and relax whilst palms provided height and structure.

The design was based around a circular path (no beginning and no end) with the Yin and Yang as the central focus. The path, which was constructed of natural stone, offered a peaceful place for tranquil contemplation while the planting was in tones of sage green and soft lavender.

Hampton Court 2006 – Croft Original ‘Croft Spot’
The Croft Spot was a classic English garden retreat in a tranquil setting. A place of relaxation, harmony and escapism.

The planting scheme featured soothing gold’s and green’s. The foliage and flowers combined the spectrum of greens, from emerald to lime tones, with shades of gold from sunshine yellow to refreshing lemon. The foliage of the plants enclosed the living space, with cultivars that showed diversity of shape, size, structure and seasonality.

A lush, green rhizomes lawn created an emerald carpet in the garden’s central relaxation area, which was designed for self indulgence. As visitors walked through the garden, they could sample the taste of an ice cool Croft sherry from the garden cottage.

Tatton Park 2006 – BA Connect, Manchester Airport New Children’s Hospital Appeal – ‘The Living Garden’

This garden was designed to be a haven for the family, combining areas for both children and parents to unwind and relax. The planting included established trees and shrubs, with seasonal flowering plants to give structure and interest.

The whole effect was to reflect the meaning of the New Children’s Hospital appeal, which was launched in May 2006 to raise money for project within the hospital, including outdoor play areas, teenage chill-out areas and a relaxation area for parents.

The Sunday Mirror’s Reflections Garden RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2005
Awarded a Silver-Gilt Medal AND won the Best City Garden trophy, this chic city garden is an exciting blend of innovative materials and dramatic planting. Inspired by the vivid colours of hot pink, silver and mauve in heat treated titanium, it features special effects all around the garden, from the wall art containing optical illusions, to liquid flooring that changes colour as it is stepped on. The floral shape when viewed from above houses alcoves in which lush green topiary balls are mixed with cerise flowers and architectural foliage to form the perfect backdrop for the dramatic Yucca rostrata in the centre.

Our media partner, the Sunday Mirror, devoted two full articles in consecutive issues of its Homes & Holidays magazine. To see these in full please click here (article courtesy of the Sunday Mirror)

Spellbound Garden BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2005
Not only did this garden attract packs of visitors who came to marvel the ancient fig and admire the new Spellbound Impatiens, it also caught the attention of House Beautiful magazine To see the magazine feature in full please click here (article courtesy of House Beautiful magazine).

Spellbound is a magical and enchanted garden straight from the fairytales, designed and created to launch a brand new Impatiens of the same name. set in the sweeping lands of French rural countryside, this is a walk-through garden with rustic arched entwined in ivy, which leads to the central wishing well encapsulated in the frame of a reclaimed Strangling Fig that is around ninety years old, shipped in especially from the far forests of central Ghana.

Gardman Wildbird Garden, RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2004:
For the first time, David's garden shows the world that gardens which encourage wildlife need not look 'wild' themselves - they can be both beautiful and an ideal bird habitat at the same time. It was a definite hit with Carol Vorderman, who released a flight of beautiful white doves to celebrate the RHS' bicentenary and to creating the most spectacular photo opportunity for the press and media.

This garden was featured in, amongst other publications, Hello!, OK!, Amateur Gardening, Sunday Mirror, The Times & Horticulture Week, reaching approximately 11.5m people. Many more watched David talking about the garden on BBC.

Water Seasons Garden The Daily Mail Ideal Home Show 2004
These gardens are the spectacular backdrop at the entrance to the show in Earl’s court 2, giving visitors a dazzling welcome into the show. The main water theme travels through the four gardens , from the Spring garden bursting with its rainbow of colours, via the midst of exotic fever in the summer garden, pass the vibrant mosaics of reds and golden shades of the autumn garden and right though to the frozen snow and icicles in the winter garden. The Home & Leisure Channel team featured this garden in their coverage of the Ideal Home Show.

That's Life Garden Makeover:
Here, David works his magic to transform a dull and dreary back yard into a vibrant living space. Using products from a range of suppliers in imaginative ways, David's makeovers are always unique inspiration for garden lovers.