Darren Hawkes is delighted to be returning to RHS Chelsea Flower show after a six-year break, having previously won Gold medals in 2017 and 2015.
Samaritans’ Listening Garden is the culmination of several years’ work and his boldest design to date.
Darren has lost close friends to suicide. In creating Samaritans’ Listening Garden, he wants to recognise the struggle that many people have with their mental health.
I hope people who go to the show and have struggled with their mental health might look at the garden and immediately recognise something that isn’t pretending life is perfect.
Darren trained to become a Samaritans listening volunteer in 2022. His garden at RHS Chelsea is a tribute to the charity’s life-saving work, inspired by his own experience as a listening volunteer. Through the garden, he hopes to convey that talking and listening can save lives, and that there is always hope.
The garden has two objectives: to create a safe space, one where people can connect, talk openly, and be heard, and to depict that while the path to hope can seem full of obstacles, there is support out there and it is always possible for things to change.
Darren works across the UK from his studio in Fowey, Cornwall. He spends his volunteering time at Samaritans in Truro, which is one of the branches his garden will relocate to when the show is over.