The winner of this year's RHS Chelsea Garden of the Year - formerly known as the Best Show Garden Award, or 'Best in Show' - has been announced at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026.
Sarah Eberle's The Campaign to Proect Rural England Garden, 'On the Edge' garden has been named as the winner of RHS Chelsea Garden of the Year.
RHS Chelsea veteran Sarah Eberle, who last designed a show garden in 2022, came out of Chelsea retirement (and is celebrating her 50th year in horticulture) for The Campaign to Protect Rural England Garden 'On the Edge'. The garden celebrates the overlooked countryside on the edge of our towns and cities, and so is set on undeveloped land and demonstrates nature's resilience with a fallen tree still able to support life.
On winning the award, Sarah said: “I am thrilled to bits to receive Garden of the Year. The difference between a good garden and a great garden is how it makes you feel and I'm often told by the next generation of gardeners that I have inspired them, which, if nothing else, is the greatest gift of all. This garden's mission is very personal to me. I am a country girl through and through so I embody the same message and beliefs that the Campaign to Protect Rural England and this garden holds.”
Chris Bailes, Chair of the Judging Panel, said: “Sarah's garden combines elements of myth and remarkable theatre. The planting speaks to an exceptionally rare sense of atmosphere, created through a clear connection to the urban and the countryside. Unexpected beauty is found in the concrete drain repurposed from an agricultural accessory into a mesmerising water feature using common duckweed. The garden achieves a beautiful, natural planting style that is difficult to accomplish, bringing wildness into a garden space with elegance and light touch.”
The garden concept is of a community plot on the fringe of a town. At its centre lies a fallen tree, which has been carved into the shape of a woman; a piece of land art that represents Mother Nature. In front of her face is a shallow pool, and her hair is made of the branches of a willow tree. It flows along a dry-stone wall that blends with the wood of the tree and snakes around to the end of the garden, concluding in a semicircular wall with boulders for sitting on.
Read the full list of medals for RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026.
Here, in a small glade-like gathering space, an old farmer’s trough overflowing with water creates a planting area for damp-loving species. There will also be some “fly-tipped” plants that have made their way in from people’s gardens, and the wider planting scheme relies heavily on native plants and wildflowers that are often dismissed as weeds. “It’s about the beauty in the ordinary,” Sarah says, highlighting plants such as buttercups, hazel and hawthorn. One of her biggest challenges has been growing many of these native plants in pots for the show – conditions they are not fond of.
Sarah worked with a diverse team of craftspeople on the garden including stonemasons, willow workers and sculptors. After the show, it will relocate to Sheffield – where the CPRE began 100 years ago – as part of a regenerative community project.
Last year the RHS refocused categories and reframed Sanctuary and Artisan gardens under large or small Show Gardens. The RHS also renamed the Best Show Garden Award in 2025 to RHS Chelsea Garden of the Year.
For 2026, in the small show gardens category, Joe and Laura Carey's garden for Addleshaw Goddard was awarded the top prize. Marie-Louise Agius, Chair of the Judging Panel said: “A subtle, dignified and elegant design, the garden is a masterpiece in the importance of pocket planting for green spaces in cities. Containing great messages regarding the future of our cities and the value of London’s 'green jewels', this garden is a celebration of exquisite detail, climate resilient planting and innovative materials.”
Best All About Plants Garden was presented to Woodland Trust: Forgotten Forests Garden by Ashleigh Aylett. Best Balcony and Container Garden went to A Little Garden of Shared Knowledge by Katerina Kantalis, sponsored by Viking.
Darren Hawkes was awarded Best Construction for the Lady Garden Foundation 'Silent no More' garden and Harry Holding and Alex Michaelis won the RHS Environmental Innovation Award.
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This year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show featured 13 gardens, nine large and four small alongside five All About Plants gardens, balcony and container gardens. With the exception of feature gardens, such as this year's The RHS and The King's Foundation Curious Garden designed by Francis Tophill, all the gardens at the show are judged alongside Floral Marquee exhibits too.
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Best in Show awards are given to one garden in each judged category and there are Best Construction awards for the larger garden categories. The RHS Environmental Innovation Award was introduced in 2024 and the RHS People's Choice Award is announced on the Friday of the show and allows the public to vote for their favourite gardens in each of the categories.
