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While sticking to its mission of showcasing beautiful garden designs and plants, there are two bigger themes running through this year’s Chelsea Flower Show: mental health and the environment.

Garden designs will highlight how plants, trees and flowers can have a positive impact on our health and well being, and raise awareness of environmental issues such as ocean plastics and the decline of pollinators. New for 2018 are the Space to Grow gardens: designs that focus on how to make the best of small spaces in urban settings.

Whether you have a large or small garden, there’s plenty of inspiration to take back home from this year’s show.

Garden retreats to enhance well being
There’s increasing evidence that gardens and gardening can make you feel happier and healthier.

Matt Keightley designed the RHS Feel Good Garden to raise awareness of the positive impact of horticulture on mental health. It combines stone seating and a variety of planting to give a contemporary, therapeutic space for relaxation. After the show, the garden will be moved to the Highgate Mental Health Centre, for residents to enjoy the peaceful surroundings the garden offers.

Inspired by the resilience and determination of Syrian refugees living in the Domiz camp in North Iraq, The Lemon Tree Trust Garden highlights the unexpected beauty hidden in the camp. Channels of water radiate from a central fountain to create a peaceful,cooling atmosphere and the planting focuses on drought-resistant fruit trees,edibles and herbs.

How to create your own garden retreat:

• Build something beautiful that will catch your eye and help you forget daily stresses and problems.
• Use cool colours – blues, purples, whites and pinks – which have been shown to have a calming effect.
• Grow a variety of plants, including aromatic herbs and grasses to add texture and fragrance to your garden.
• Create a space where you can sit and enjoy your garden.

Gardens that help the environment
Several of the gardens at this year’s show highlight the environmental issues raised by our contemporary lifestyles and showcase the power of plants in tackling these challenges.

Urban Flow is a garden designed for outdoor living in a changing climate. Plants have been selected to tolerate a range of environmental conditions, including long dry spells and excess moisture, and attract and sustain wildlife.

In a nod to the future, the LGE co-City Garden represents one household’s private green space in a“vertical forest” of apartments. The trees and plants help absorb carbondioxide and control oxygen generation, humidity and temperature. Running water alleviates noise pollution and the planting scheme incorporates wild flower habitat for pollinators.

Several of the gardens use recycled materials, including The Weston Garden, which recycles plants from previous shows and incorporates reclaimed York stone and limestone slips.

How to create an environmentally friendly garden:

• Reclaim and reuse as much as possible, including mulch, compost and building materials.
• Design your garden to work with the environment, not against it. If you have a sunny, south-facing garden opt for drought-resistant plants and shrubs such as glossy abelia and spedum spectabile.
• Enhance biodiversity and create habitat for bees and other pollinators by planting the plants they love.
• Green walls can provide a dramatic feature as well as adding extra growing space to your garden.

Make the most of small spaces

Just because your garden is small, doesn’t mean it can’t be spectacular. The Space to Grow gardens at this year’s festival will inspire urban gardeners to create their own tiny showcase gardens.

Designed as a green oasis for London living, the New West End Garden creates the illusion of space by laying out the garden on a 45-degree angle. Designer, Kate Gould, also used a sunken central area and green walls to create different levels in the garden.

The Silent Pool Gin Garden is a contemporary haven for a city couple to relax in. The infinity pool water feature and the blue, white, green and copper colour palette create a calming ambience, and multi-stemmed trees give privacy from surrounding buildings.

How to create a showcase urban garden:

• Create a focal point, such as the pod in the Life Without Walls garden, but make sure it’s appropriate for the size of your garden.
• Choose multi-tasking plants that look good all year round and perform an important function, such as attracting wildlife.

Use different levels in both structure and planting to create the illusion of space.