Travelling to all corners of the galaxy

New for 2013, five gardens themed around the galaxy and space travel made an unusual journey for gardening lovers.

Named Gravitational Pull, Leon Davis and Brendan Vaughan were inspired by research into the gravitational forces at work in and around a black hole, in particular the gravitational pull.

The centrepiece of the garden was a cone-shaped construction made from steel and recycled scaffold boards.

The planting was set at acute angles and becomes more chaotic as it nears the black hole, giving the impression that the plants are being moved around and pulled into the hole by gravity.

Life on Enceladus, designed by Peter Styles was inspired by the announcement by scientists that Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, is a possible home to life forms.

In this garden, space explorers from Earth have landed on Enceladus and found pockets of plant life.

Designed by Jonathan Price, and built by students at Reaseheath College in Crewe, Mu-No Thing is designed to highlight the awe-inspiring nature of a galaxy and the scientific rules that govern it. It consists of an elliptical spiral of raked gravel with a concave cross-section, through which there are planted clusters of individual foliage plants, grouped by colour.

While The Star Gazer’s Retreat, designed by Mike Russell was located in a woodland glade, and housed a sedum-roofed observatory, which provided space to observe the stars by night and to relax and enjoy the garden and its wildlife by day.

The garden was inspired by an exhibition of the work of local astronomer and photographer Peter Shah, who captures inspirational photographs of the stars from his garden shed.