This meeting of worlds sees Bleue Burnham design its first garden at the New Balance Made in the UK factory in Flimby. Conceived primarily for the factory’s employees, the garden has been created as a restorative space. Somewhere to bring moments of calm, beauty and joy into the rhythm of the working day. Throughout the garden, a series of thoughtfully placed seating areas invite the New Balance team to pause and spend time amongst the garden during breaks. For more communal moments, picnic benches are positioned within the largest flower beds, with cherry trees that grow through the centre of each table, where one would traditionally find an umbrella, providing natural and playful form of shading.

Aesthetically, the garden pays homage to the extraordinary beauty of the Lake District, while reflecting Bleue Burnham’s playful approach to design. The garden’s landscaping has been shaped with gently undulating flower beds with pockets of water woven into them, subtly echoing the surrounding landscape of the Lake District national park. To further reinforce this dialog, along the south-eastern boundary, which faces inland, the hedging has been intentionally lowered to allow the wider scenery to enter the garden, deepening its connection to the landscape beyond.

The planting scheme draws inspiration from two of Bleue Burnham’s most admired horticultural approaches to planting design: the New Perennial movement and the British cottage garden. Sweeping drifts of perennial block planting are interwoven with more traditional cottage garden varieties such as roses, lilies, hollyhocks and foxgloves, creating a balance between wildness and refinement. Around the outer edges of the garden, wildflower has been planted. In early spring, daffodils, will emerge amongst the wildflower, joyfully heralding the first on the season’s flowers. This then continues into Japanese cherry blossom (Prunus Kanzan), chosen for its striking pink pom-pom blossom displays in spring, which punctuates the wildflower in a structured pattern. Within the garden itself, the planting has been designed to flower in succession throughout spring, summer and autumn, allowing the landscape to unfold through a series of distinct seasonal moments across the year.