RHS Chelsea 2026 unveils The Project Giving Back Garden, with James Basson designing a landscape of recovery and climate-adapted planting
According to a recent RHS article and Project Giving Back’s official garden profile, The Project Giving Back Garden will be created as a Feature Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 to mark Project Giving Back’s final year. The design is by Provence-based garden designer James Basson.
The garden’s central motif is the ochre mines of Roussillon in southern France. The official description highlights red sandstone cliffs, pine woodland and colour from natural ochre pigments, presenting the design against the idea of a damaged site recovering through natural succession and soil regeneration.
The planting approach is based on plants adapted to the warm, dry climate of southern France. The RHS describes the garden as offering a glimpse of what UK gardens may look like in the near future, while Project Giving Back emphasises a wild, restrained planting style that supports biodiversity.
The official plant list includes Montpellier maple (Acer monspessulanum), heather (Calluna vulgaris), sage-leaved cistus (Cistus salvifolius), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), wild pear (Pyrus pyraster), common thyme (Thymus vulgaris) and privet (Ligustrum vulgare). These choices support a Mediterranean and wild-landscape planting language able to tolerate dry and poor-soil conditions.
Project Giving Back has supported gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show since 2022, and its official material states that from 2022 to 2026 it funded and supported 60 good causes, more than 60 designers and 60 gardens. The RHS article also presents this garden as a way to mark Project Giving Back’s five years of activity and legacy.
A post-show plan has also been specified. Project Giving Back says 2,000 plants from the garden will be transported to The Wonky Garden, a community garden in Widnes, to help complete its final phase of development and expand its local community impact.
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