An award winning urban inspired show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, designed as a testing ground for researchers to pilot an innovative AI tool that supports urban trees, was supplied with recycled aggregates from Brett Landscaping.
The Avanande Intelligent Garden, designed by Tom Massey and Je Ahn from Studio Weave, is an urban forest garden designed to support urban trees – essential allies in combating climate change and creating more hospitable living conditions in our cities. The garden won Gold at the RHS Flower Show and the award for best construction.
The design is based on a forest garden concept, with a high degree of biodiversity. Brett Landscaping’s aggregates were used to demonstrate how plants and trees could survive and thrive among commonly used urban realm materials.
Research suggests that 50% of trees planted to filter urban air pollution, support wildlife and boost community wellbeing do not survive beyond 10 years, long before most trees reach their ecological peak at 50 years old.
The garden is equipped with sensors that track tree health – monitoring growth, sap flow, soil conditions, air quality, and weather patterns. AI then analyses this data, spotting trends and predicting future conditions to provide simple, actionable advice. It is hoped that AI can play a role in supporting the health and survival of urban trees in the midst of the climate crisis, especially as further studies have calculated that it can take up to 16 years for a newly planted urban tree to become carbon neutral.*
Danielle Thorpe, Head of Marketing, Brett Landscaping says: “The Avanade Intelligent Garden is such a great concept, demonstrating how new technology can be applied to tried and trusted practices to deliver new learning. As a manufacturer that specialises in paving projects from home gardens to the urban space around the buildings and places we use as a community, we know how important it is to ensure nature and biodiveristy can thrive in the environments we create.
“We’re so pleased to have been able to play a small part in Tom’s award winning garden idea and execution and thrilled to know that the garden will have a permanent home at one of the UK’s newest city parks.”
Following the show the Avanade Intelligent Garden is being relocated to the new Mayfield Park in Manchester, which has been built on the former site of the Mayfield railway station and industrial site near Piccadilly Station.
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