Designed by Juliet Sargeant, the garden won three awards at the festival including best show garden
Disney’s THE LION KING is presenting a community garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival to commemorate 25 years of the iconic, award-winning West End musical.
Designed by leading garden designer Juliet Sargeant, the garden received three awards at the festival; Best Show Garden, the RHS Environmental Innovation Award and a Silver Gilt Medal*.
Disney’s The Lion King 25th Anniversary Community Garden is open at the garden festival until 7 July, featuring rousing live performances and interactive activities throughout the week, providing a communal space for the public to sit and reflect on their own journey through the ‘Circle of Life’.
Thenjiwe Thendiva Nofemele performs in The Lion King 25th Anniversary Garden at RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival – photo credit Clive Sugden
Filled with colourful drought-tolerant flowers, the triple-award-winning garden reflects the bright hues of Julie Taymor’s theatrical design. Made from recycled, crushed red brick the soil is planted with swathes of resilient grasses to reflect the Pridelands with antelope from the production appearing to leap through the grass. It is surrounded by a wildlife-friendly dead hedge, which creates a traditional Boma providing a communal meeting place for visitors to enjoy.
The ‘Circle of Life’ echoes throughout the garden, creating balance and harmony, whilst a large fabric ‘sunrise’ provides a colourful and theatrical boundary focal point. Climate resilient plants and trees such as Bulbinella frutescens ‘Sunset Orange, ‘Zanthoxyllum simulans (Szechuan pepper), Kniphofia varieties, Zelkova serrata, Stipa pseudo-ichu, and Gleditsia Skyline (Honey Locust) offer ideas for savannah style planting that’s practical and drought-tolerant with the aim of encouraging people to experiment with new planting styles as well as with plants.
Juliet Sargeant on the garden – photo credit Clive Sugden
Since performances began at the Lyceum Theatre in 1999 more than 19 million people have experienced the breath-taking musical in London. Every performance takes 150 people, with 50 on stage and 100 backstage along with 232 puppets and 350 different costumes. To mark its 25th year in the heart of London’s West End, the show is proud to celebrate its quarter century at this prestigious event in the capital’s annual calendar.
THE LION KING 25th anniversary garden designer, Juliet Sargeant commented:“Simply exhibiting at a RHS show is a privilege, but to have been awarded Best Show Garden is amazing, especially given the calibre of gardens this year. The Environmental Innovation award is new to the RHS and so we really weren’t expecting to win. It’s lovely to have confirmed our message of environmental responsibility that runs through the garden and the ethos of the theatre show.”
Disney’s THE LION KING Lyceum Theatre 21 Wellington Street, London WC2E 7RQ
Ticket information Performances at the Lyceum Theatre, London are on sale now. Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.thelionking.co.uk / 0800 912 6971
For further information relating to THE LION KING, please contact Bread and Butter PR: Kate Hassell | kate@breadandbutterpr.uk | 07921264564
For further information relating to Juliet Sargeant, please contact Emma Mason PR: Emma Mason | emma@emmamasonpr.co.uk | 07762 117433
NOTES TO EDITORS *The Silver Gilt Medal is the second highest medal to be awarded by the RHS. Main photo credit Alister Thorpe
ABOUT DISNEY THEATRICAL GROUP Disney Theatrical Group, a division of The Walt Disney Studios, was formed in 1994 and operates under the direction of Andrew Flatt, Anne Quart and Thomas Schumacher. Worldwide, its ten Broadway titles have been seen by more than 200 million theatregoers and have been nominated for 62 Tony® Awards, winning Broadway’s highest honor 20 times. The company’s inaugural production, Beauty and the Beast, opened in 1994, playing a remarkable 13-year run on Broadway and produced in replica productions around the world over four decades. In November 1997, Disney made theatrical history with the opening of The Lion King, which received six 1998 Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Director, Julie Taymor, who became the first woman in Broadway history to win the award. Surpassing 25 landmark years on Broadway, it has welcomed 112 million visitors worldwide to date and has nine productions currently running worldwide. The Lion King has played over 100 cities in 24 countries on every continent except Antarctica and its worldwide gross exceeds that of any film, Broadway show or entertainment title in box office history. Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida opened on Broadway next, winning four 2000 Tony Awards. It was followed by Mary Poppins, a co-production with Cameron Mackintosh, which opened in London in 2004 and went on to enjoy a six-year Tony-winning Broadway run. Tarzan®, Tony-nominated for its 2006 Broadway premiere, went on to become an international hit with an award-winning production enjoying a ten-year run in Germany. In January 2008, The Little Mermaid opened on Broadway and was the best-selling new musical of that year. Disney Theatrical Group opened two critically acclaimed productions on Broadway in 2012, winning seven Tony Awards between them: Peter and the Starcatcher and Newsies, each of which enjoyed a two-year run and launched North American tours, with Newsies playing a record-breaking Fathom Events in-cinema release. Aladdin, Disney Theatrical Group’s 2014 hit, continues its smash Broadway run. It has launched nine productions around the globe and been seen by more than 17 million guests. Disney Theatrical Group’s newest hit, the 2018 Tony-nominated Best Musical Frozen currently has four productions around the world. Other stage ventures include the Olivier-nominated London hit Shakespeare in Love, stage productions of Disney’s High School Musical, Der Glöckner Von Notre Dame in Berlin and King David in concert on Broadway. Disney Theatrical Group has collaborated with the nation’s preeminent theatres to develop new stage musicals including The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Freaky Friday and Hercules. As a part of the recent acquisition of 21st Century Fox, Disney Theatrical Group also heads the Buena Vista Theatrical banner, which licenses Fox titles for stage adaptations including Anastasia, Moulin Rouge! The Musical and Mrs. Doubtfire. With dozens of productions currently produced or licensed, a Disney musical is being performed professionally somewhere on the planet virtually every hour of the day. Next on the Disney Theatrical schedule: the world-premiere of Hercules in Hamburg, Germany and the North American tour of a reimagined production of Beauty and The Beast in 2025.
ABOUT JULIET SARGEANT Juliet Sargeant is a Sussex-based garden designer who loves to use gardens to tell stories and inspire creativity. In 2016, she was awarded a RHS Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal and The People’s Choice Award for her ‘Modern Slavery Garden’ and a Siver-Gilt for The New Blue Peter Garden: Discover Soil, 2022.
In this garden, Juliet celebrates all the creative talents who have contributed to the success of The Lion King West End Show. She uses the parched landscape of the African savanna to underpin a climate resilient ‘Circle of Life’ theme to the garden, with colourful drought-tolerant planting to inspire us all.
Juliet has long advocated the importance of gardens for health and in her private practice, she uses gardens to help connect people to landscape and nature. At her ‘Sussex Garden School’ she runs courses to de-mystify gardening and help people to get to know their gardens better.Juliet has won awards from the SGD in 2012 and 2015, for sustainability and hard landscaping design. In 2017 Juliet was made a Fellow of the SGD for her contribution to garden design & horticulture and in 2019 she was made Fellow of The Landscape Institute.In 2016 Juliet was celebrated for her role as a change-maker and role model at the GG2 Leadership Awards. She was also one of the Evening Standard’s Progress 100 influential people. In 2018 she was named as one of the BBC 100 Women.
ABOUT THE RHS Since our formation in 1804, the RHS has grown into the UK’s leading gardening charity, touching the lives of millions of people. Perhaps the secret to our longevity is that we’ve never stood still. In the last decade alone we’ve taken on the largest hands-on project the RHS has ever tackled by opening RHS Garden Bridgewater in Salford, Greater Manchester, and invested in the science that underpins all our work by building RHS Hilltop – The Home of Gardening Science. We have committed to being net positive for nature and people by 2030. We are also committed to being truly inclusive and to reflect all the communities of the UK. Across our five RHS gardens we welcome more than three million visitors each year to enjoy over 34,000 different cultivated plants. Events such as the world famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show, other national shows, our schools and community work, and partnerships such as Britain in Bloom, all spread the shared joy of gardening to wide-reaching audiences.Throughout it all we’ve held true to our charitable core – to encourage and improve the science, art and practice of horticulture –to share the love of gardening and the positive benefits it brings. For more information visit www.rhs.org.uk. RHS Registered Charity No. 222879/SC038262
The New Blue Peter Garden: Discover Soil to have a permanent home at RHS Garden Bridgewater from the autumn with a preview showing at RHS Chelsea Flower Show
2022 new Blue Peter garden designed by Juliet Sargeant – fun and interactive soil science, journey through soil in a subterranean rhizotron, dodge ‘rain’ showers, listen to a compost heap, and explore a spring barley field, wildflower meadow with orchids, native woodland or veg patc
A new soil-themed garden, in partnership with CBBC’s Blue Peter, is to open to visitors at RHS Garden Bridgewater in Salford in the autumn – with a guest appearance first at this month’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Designed by award-winning designer Juliet Sargeant, it will champion the very modern-day topic of soil’s central role in supporting life and its potential to lock-in carbon. Aimed at engaging children and adults to discover the importance of soil in their own back gardens, balconies, or communities, it will explain why we need to protect it and how. The new garden will first preview as a Main Avenue show garden at RHS Chelsea later this month, before being relocated to its permanent home at RHS Garden Bridgewater for public access.
A beautiful mini wildflower meadow featuring British orchids; tiny ‘field’ planted with spring barley, a RHS Chelsea first; veg patch and native woodland, will demonstrate how soil supports our natural landscape, food crops and gardens. To access the immersive garden, visitors at RHS Garden Bridgewater will be able to hop over stepping stones and then crawl into dank fern-planted cavities to dig the earth, listen to the sounds of a compost heap, and even dodge a playful rain shower, a reminder of how water forms and also degrades soil.
The brightly planted garden will take you down into the ground and bring the soil up from beneath your feet, to see, touch and hear, and to draw you into the amazing underground world of mini-beasts and microbes. The earthy adventure continues with a semi-subterranean, theatrical rhizotron chamber where a soil animation by Polish artist Zuzanna Kolodziej will play, with tree roots growing above.
Juliet Sargeant said: “Soil supports most of the life on our planet, without soil there is nothing. Down-trodden and neglected, it is the ‘forgotten climate solution’ beneath our feet. Healthy soils not only feed most of life on earth, but also act as an essential carbon sink for damaging greenhouse gases. My aim with this garden is to invite people to look more closely at soil and the subtleties of its complex ecosystem. We raise it up to eye level and say, ‘Look at this!”
Citizen art on the garden includes ‘creepy crawlies’ painted by Year 5 children from Salford and soil de-crustation artworks by German artist Anneli Ketterer in collaboration with Salford residents. Sculptor Teresa Wells has cast a bespoke bronze of 4-year-old, Arthur, discovering a worm for the garden. In Compost Corner you can listen to the sounds of a healthy soil, recorded by the Zurich University Sounding Soil project. Tiles of Stow have created bespoke cracked clay paving tiles, to remind us of the devastation of drought, but the brightly coloured planting and field of barley illustrate the abundance that a healthy soil sustains.
There will be blue and orange-hued plants nurtured by Roger Platts Garden Design and Nurseries of Edenbridge.
Blue Peter has a proud history of garden design with the show’s original Blue Peter garden being designed by Percy Thrower in 1974. It was relocated from Television Centre to Media City in 2012, with the Italian-style sunken ornamental pond and statue of the first ever Blue Peter dog, Petra. The garden features regularly on the show and is open for the public to visit at Media City UK in Salford Quays.
The New Blue Peter Garden: Discover Soil is one of 12 gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year being funded by Project Giving Back (PGB). PGB is a new charity, established in response to the pandemic, that offers good causes in the UK the opportunity to exhibit a show garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, to promote their work for people, plants and the planet. All gardens supported by PGB will be relocated to permanent homes after the show so their legacy will live on for generations to come.
Five easy tips for helping your soil by Juliet Sargeant
Know your soil – The soil in your garden is an amazing micro-environment, teaming with life and the potential to grow. The character of the soil, its texture and chemical make-up is unique to your site. This is what gives your garden its individuality and what will affect the plants you can grow. Get to know your soil by observing its colour and texture and also by testing its acidity with a kit from the garden centre.
Feed your soil – The mini-beasts and micro-organisms that inhabit your soil need feeding. Their complex life cycles are what sustains the health of the soil. Starting a compost heap to recycle your food scraps and garden waste is the best thing you can do to feed your soil. Turn your waste into compost and use it to feed your soil.
Protect your soil – Soil is always there, beneath our feet; so, it is easy to overlook how fragile it is. Your soil needs protection from wind, rain and also compaction. The best way to protect soil is to plant it – leaves form a natural, protective blanket over the soil surface. However, digging the soil can damage its delicate structure, so why not try the ‘No-Dig Method’ of mulching your soil with peat-free compost to suppress the weeds. When you are watering, try to avoid flooding the soil and compacting it.
Plant your soil – The best way to support the natural life cycle of your soil is to grow plants. Trees in particular are invaluable to a garden’s ecosystem and to the protection and stabilisation of soil. Planting trees is great. However, given the many years it takes for a tree to grow, it is also important to protect established trees and only fell them when absolutely necessary.
Let your soil breathe….it’s alive – In this age of the car many of us need extra parking space. As more and more of us pave over our gardens, the soil beneath is dying; it is suffocating. This sealing of the soil, also prevents rainwater draining away and exacerbates local flooding. Fortunately, there are permeable paving solutions which you can choose for your driveway or patio.
Juliet Sargeant – is a Sussex-based garden designer who loves to use gardens to tell stories and get us thinking. In 2016, she was awarded a CFS Gold Medal and The People’s Choice Award for her ‘Modern Slavery Garden’.
Having trained initially as a medical doctor, in this garden, she explores the interface between art and science. Juliet has long advocated the importance of gardens for health and in her private practice, she uses gardens to help connect people to landscape and nature. At her ‘Sussex Garden School’ she runs courses to de-mystify gardening and help people to get to know their gardens better.
Previously, Chair of The Society of Garden Designers, Juliet is now on the RHS (Royal Horticultural Soc) selection panel for show gardens and acts as a judge. She has won awards from the SGD in 2012 and 2015, for sustainability and hard landscaping design. In 2017 Juliet was made a Fellow of the SGD for her contribution to garden design & horticulture and in 2019 she was made Fellow of The Landscape Institute.In 2016 Juliet was celebrated for her role as a change-maker and role model in the BAME community at the GG2 Leadership Awards. She was also one of the Evening Standard’s Progress 100 influential people. In 2018 she was named as one of the BBC 100 Women.
Blue Peter – is the longest running kids TV show in the world featuring Adam, Mwaksy, Richie and Henry the dog. Blue Peter is packed full of challenges, celebrities, and things to do. Every week on CBBC and BBC iPlayer, Blue Peter encourages kids to join in, earn their badge, enter a competition, be creative and adventurous. bbc.co.uk/bluepeter
Project Giving Back (PGB) – is a unique grant-making charity that provides funding for gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. PGB was launched in May 2021, with funding from two private individuals who wish to remain anonymous, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its effect on UK charitable fundraising. It will fund gardens inspired by a range of good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Applications for gardens in 2023 are now closed. Find out more at www.givingback.org.uk
