Gold Medal Garden – Scottish Garden Design Competition, Scone Palace
( Now a permanent Installation )
Medal:
Gold
Award:
Best In Show
Judges:
Paul Hervey‑Brookes: Multi gold medal winner and RHS Chelsea Flower Show judge
Dougal Philip & Lesley Watson: RHS Chelsea judges
Lewis Normand: President of the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society
Project Team
Garden Design and Project Delivery: Jack Verran, Jack Verran Design
Build Team: Livio Belotti, Alex Heather and Craig Thomas Macdonald
Bench Design, Build & Timber Support : Nikiti Wolfe, Wolfe Studio
Ecological Planting Support: Matt Nelson, Wildspace
Sponsors:
Feature Elements
- ADEZZ – Corten structures
- CED Stone – Boulders and Hard Landscape
- FirePit.co.uk – Corten firepit
- Scottish Wood – Bark-edged larch
- Urbis – Water bowl
- Wolfe Studio – bench design & build
Planting Contributors
- Alba Trees – Early stage woodland regeneration planting
- Highland Moss – Moss
- R & B Nursery – Trees & shrubs
- SoilFixer – Biochar
Story
Inspired by the 2023 wildfire at RSPB Corrimony Reserve, After the Fire explores resilience and regeneration within a Scottish woodland recovering from fire.
The garden begins in a charred landscape, marked by blackened timbers and a central firepit bearing the triskelion symbol, a symbolic origin of change. Beneath the surface, biochar enriches the soil and sequesters carbon, signalling that recovery has already begun.
As visitors move through the space, early coloniser species emerge, pine seedlings break through the ground, bug hotels support ecological resilience, and the landscape becomes increasingly layered and established.
At the heart of the garden sits a handcrafted bench that rises from a rough, charred base into finely crafted hardwood, a sculptural expression of woodland regeneration after fire. Positioned beside a simple water bowl set within a golden ratio spiral, the space invites pause and reflection on nature’s capacity for renewal.
The garden is not a finished landscape, but a living system shaped by disturbance, resilience, regrowth and transformation.