John Deere celebrates 100 years with show garden at Chatsworth
Designed by Elspeth Stockwell and Jo Fairfax, John Deere’s first sponsored garden at an RHS flower show celebrates 100 years of tractors and an era when innovation revolutionised agriculture and the worked landscape.
Print6 June 2018
John Deere’s garden features a striking circular sculpture of 100 golden tractors and the planting mixes meadow and monoculture planting styles. A charred oak backdrop and circular seating suggest farm buildings dotted across the pastoral landscape. The garden reflects the atmosphere of walking through the countryside, where nature looks on as tractors cultivate the fields.
John Deere’s RHS Chatsworth Garden. Photo: John Deere.
The planting depicts the landscape’s natural beauty through a combination of native and non-native flowering grasses and wildflowers. Around 2000 individual plants include Calamagrostis Karl Foerster planted en masse to mimic fields of crops, while Papaver cambricum and ferns portray John Deere’s green and yellow corporate colours. Camassia leichtlinii caerulea is a North American prairie plant and a reference to John Deere’s US origins. Betula pendula and Digitalis lutea also feature in the planting scheme.
The plants are being supplied by Miles Nurseries and Barcham Trees. The contractor is David Greaves Landscape Design and Construction and CED Stone Landscape are providing the hard landscaping materials.
Elspeth explains the inspiration behind the garden: “John Deere’s 100 years of tractors made me think how innovation in agriculture has transformed the landscape over the last century. Working in collaboration with Jo Fairfax, I wanted to create a garden that depicts the rhythms and seasonality of the land.”
John Deere celebrates 100 years of tractor manufacturing in 2018, and the company’s longstanding commitment to support those who cultivate, transform and enrich the land. The garden portrays John Deere’s aims and this special anniversary.
Photo: RHS.
Blacksmith John Deere founded the company that bears his name in 1837, in Illinois, when he developed an innovative plough that could work the heavy soil of the North American prairies, thereby revolutionising agriculture and making farming profitable in the region’s tough conditions. In 1918 the company entered the tractor business with the acquisition of the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company and its iconic 27hp Waterloo Boy.
A century of tractor innovation has followed, including the launch in 1963 of the company’s first lawn tractor, the 7hp 110, drawing on the experience and technology of its larger agricultural cousins. John Deere has grown to become one of the world’s leading manufacturers of agricultural, turf, lawn and garden equipment, its ethos firmly rooted in its founder’s core values of integrity, quality, commitment, and innovation.
Harry Williams Waterloo Boy 1919. Photo John Deere.
In addition to the show garden, John Deere will also have an adjacent trade stand to showcase models from its extensive range of lawn care equipment including lawn tractors, robotic lawnmowers and walk-behind mowers. RHS Chatsworth Flower Show takes place on June 6-10 near Bakewell in Derbyshire’s Peak District.
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