The Terrence Higgins Trust Bridge to 2030 garden is set to be one of the highlights of the world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Created by award-winning garden designer Matthew Childs, the garden is designed to mark the huge progress made in the fight against HIV since the 1980s.

Matthew is bringing the Bridge to 2030 garden to the show thanks to the support of Project Giving Back. He has previously designed a diverse range of exciting landscapes and show gardens, and returns to Chelsea 10 years after his debut on Main Avenue in 2014.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show opens to the public on Tuesday 21 May 2024.

'HIV has touched and impacted our community greatly, and since my teenage years I have been conscious of the abhorrent stigma associated with the virus,’ says Matthew.

‘The recent response to COVID, in which people came together to overcome the challenges presented by a new deadly pandemic, highlighted to me what was possible and reawakened my desire to help. We need to get the message out about all the progress that’s been made in HIV that makes ending new cases an achievable goal.'

The garden’s place at Chelsea is a brilliant opportunity to engage a big audience around the progress made in HIV – including an audience we don’t always get the opportunity to talk to.

‘We're thrilled to have the opportunity to tell everyone how much HIV has changed in the last 40 years through our Terrence Higgins Trust Bridge to 2030 Garden at Chelsea,' says our Chief Executive Richard Angell.

'We're on a mission to end new HIV cases in this country by the end of the decade and we need to engage as many people in that life-changing goal as possible. The garden of Matt's design will take everyone who visits on a journey from the death and fear of the 1980s through to today where you can live a long, healthy life without HIV holding you back.'

The entrance into the garden is reminiscent of the flooded base of a rejuvenated quarry landscape. The water level rises and falls, revealing a monolith slate stepping stone creating a bridge to the 2030 vision of no new HIV cases. The tombstone, which once represented death and fear, is now a crossing, leading to a secluded terrace in which to enjoy a positive, hopeful future together.
 
The front of the garden is a crevice garden, which takes inspiration from natural areas where plants grow in gaps between rocks. This ornamental space transitions to a more natural look towards the rear of the garden.
 
Granite boulders are scattered through the garden, inspired by those found in the slate landscapes of North Wales. One of these boulders balances precariously from the raised bed on the boundary, looking as though it is about to fall. Beneath it, fragile sticks give the illusion they are supporting the weight of the boulder – an analogy for those people lost to HIV.
 
The planting in the garden is inspired by the re-colonisation of plants in the redundant slate mines of North Wales, by both nature, and from the subtle intervention of ecologists and horticulturalists.

See the full plant list

News: Bridge to 2030 Garden is coming to Chelsea

RHS Chelsea Flower Show: About our garden

RHS Chelsea Flower Show: About our designer

RHS Chelsea Flower Show: Plant list [PDF]