Yorkshire showcases beer garden at Chelsea Flower Show

REAL ALE is the theme and inspiration for this year’s entry from Yorkshire to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Tourism body Welcome to Yorkshire showcases its sixth garden at the event, centring around the region’s famous beer industry and growing crop of microbreweries.

Designed by Sheffield-based Bestall & Co in partnership with the Leeds-based Aire Valley Landscaping and Wold Top Brewery near Driffield, the garden will have an old brewing shed and elements from a modern microbrewery as its centrepieces.

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “Brewers Yard will celebrate another side of Yorkshire; its outstanding brewing scene with a vast wealth of incredible microbreweries right across the county.

“It’s an industry that has really taken off in Yorkshire, and where better than one of the county’s many pubs to sample a pint or two of that outstanding product?”

Gill Mellor, director of Wold Top Brewery, said: “Partnering with Welcome to Yorkshire on the Brewers Yard garden at the Chelsea Flower Show is a real dream come true for me.

“Before my husband and I embarked on the brewing journey, I trained in horticulture and garden design so for me it’s an opportunity to really return to my roots, so to speak, and it’s great to be representing the county’s breweries and microbreweries on a national stage such as the Chelsea Flower Show.”

Lee Bestall, garden designer and managing director of Bestall&Co, said: “The garden is primarily a celebration of Yorkshire’s breweries and stunning ale offering, and aesthetically, it provides an illustration of the historical fusion between a recently refurbished old Yorkshire brewing shed and the fundamentals of a modern micro-brewery.”

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show runs from 19 to 23 May.