Guest Blog: Olson & Baker
Joe & Laura Carey designed the Addleshaw Goddard: Freedom To Flourish Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2025. The garden was awarded a Gold Medal, Best Small Garden and Best Construction.
The Chelsea Flower Show is a feast for the senses, where visitors will see the finest examples of garden design at the world’s most prestigious flower show every year. Each showcase features inspired plant combinations and cutting-edge landscaping, culminating in a magical wonderland of spectacular floristry displays which push the boundaries of art.
Carey Garden Design Studio were no different, and displayed their offering named “Freedom to Flourish” at the Chelsea Flower Show. Norfolk-based artists Joe and Laura Carey are no stranger to garden design, and returned to RHS Chelsea in 2025 as previous Gold Medal winners. In May 2023, they created a garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for Talitha Arts, and even passed on their knowledge of how to design a showstopping show garden.
The Freedom to Flourish Garden was inspired by the Norfolk phrase ‘slow you down’, and reflects nature’s quiet call to slow down amidst the rising tide of life’s busyness. A living display of how creativity flourishes in stillness, not haste, the garden encourages slowness and conveys unhurried simplicity.
Much of the planting and colour palette take inspiration from Norfolk landscape, and the thatch in the gabions is Norfolk Water Reed, sourced from Salthouse saltmarshes.
The pièce de résistance was the Jack Chair from Ethnicraft, supplied by Olson & Baker. Joe Carey remarked that their search for the perfect furniture was “dictated by having something ethically made, responsibly sourced and simple yet elegant in design.”
“When we found the Jack Chair we knew it was perfect for the space. The team at Olson and Baker were incredible. They arranged everything and it was timed to perfection—a safe pair of hands from start to finish.”
– Joe Carey, Carey Garden Design Studio
The Jack Chair turned out to be the perfect design, proportion and quality to embody the feeling of slowing down and adopting an unhurried pace in life that the Freedom to Flourish Garden portrayed.
During the Chelsea Flower Show, many celebrities were intrigued by the Freedom to Flourish Garden, and came to sit down and take in the stunning beauty around them, including Gregory Porter and Larry Lamb to name a few. Joe says of the celeb visitors; “The chairs were one of our most asked about features in the garden. Anyone lucky enough to enter the garden would sit down and not want to get up. We also had lots of comments saying how perfectly suited they were for the space.”
As the garden beckoned people, it also gave them a destination and an invitation to embrace a quiet moment of rest amidst the bustling backdrop of the show, in the comfortable yet quality Jack Chair from Olson & Baker.
The Freedom to Flourish Garden’s journey didn’t end there, as it has now been rehomed at the Honeypot Children’s Centre in the New Forest, a retreat centre for young carers.
Get inspired by the Freedom to Flourish Garden, and grow your outdoor space this summer. Find out more about Carey Garden Design Studios upcoming projects, and browse more furniture at Olson & Baker.
For more information on Carey Garden Design Studio, their gardens, and how they work, why not follow them on instagram @careygardendesignstudio or visit our website www.careygardendesign.co.uk.
