One thousand acres of rolling parkland inspired Kent-based Jo Thompson’s Free Form Brewin Dolphin garden at RHS Chatsworth Flower Show – and it won her the People’s Choice accolade.

Jo’s aim was to work with the landscape and create an ornamental meadow which meandered alongside the River Derwent in Derbyshire. The naturalistic planting wowed the crowds and she said her greatest accolade was to have ‘won over visitors’ hearts’.

Jo said: “I created a veil of soft planting around a glade of trees – four multi-stemmed field maples and two hornbeams – many of the visitors thought the trees had always been there so I was delighted they thought it was such a natural scene.

“I wanted my garden to work with the landscape and now I know it has worked.”

The Brewin Dolphin garden weaved along the riverbank in a series of curves ‘held in’ by reinforcing steel bars while swallows performed an aerial ballet in approval and ducks waddled in to take a look.

This was the first RHS Chatsworth Flower Show and Jo had a free hand with the planting as the main sponsor’s garden was not being judged. This allowed her to push the boundaries and with her signature light touch and pastel planting she added splashes of cerise with tall, elegant dianthus carthusianorum.

Delicate ferns, iris, salvias, scabious and astrantiawere punctuated by bold, single orange dahlias and spires of verbascum to create a romantic setting for Cranbrook’s queen of garden design – it was this planting that brought her such public interest and Jo’s trusted planting team once again did her proud.

Jo’s was just one of eight Freeform installations backed up by eight further traditional show gardens at RHS Chatsworth and despite the wind and rain buffeting the ground in the early part of the week, the planting and design quality still shone through.

These included the enchanting Belmond garden with a cleverly woven willow fence laced with roses; the Agriframes garden inspired by Marcel Breuer of the Bauhaus School, and the practical Moveable Feast garden with moving modular planters that 'Generation Rent' can plant up and take with them when they move.

This garden came under intense scrutiny from the judges, including Roger Platts who runs a nursery in Edenbridge, Kent.

A sense of fun came in the form of the Peak District and Derbyshire Garden which was cleverly positioned so the cow sculptures peered longingly towards the lush green hills while Jonathan Moseley’s flower-clad bridge was a complete work of art deserving of far more sunshine.

The floral marquees, which survived the risk of being upended by the winds, featured magnificent displays andBrookfield Nursery’s Paul Harris from Ashford was displaying his pristine hostas, fresh from winning his fifth RHS Chelsea gold medal in a row.