Britain’s Prince Harry will have an African inspired garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The 30-year-old royal enlisted the help of Matt Keightley to work on the garden for his Sentebale charity, which will be inspired by Mamohato Children’s Centre in Lesotho.
The landscape designer – who works for Maidenhead-based firm Farr & Roberts said: "He is very keen to know about the details, from the colour of the stone to which plants we’re going to use, when they will be ready, and so on. He wants to make sure it is exactly right.
The design for the Hope in Vulnerability Garden which will cover a 32ft x 72 ft plot will feature traditional African building techniques as well as a poppy which is native to the country, which the prince hopes to bring to the UK for the first time.
He said: "People have tried and failed in the past to germinate them here, and we won’t know until a couple of weeks before the show whether we’ve been successful."
The designer, also 30, revealed Harry asked him to be involved with the project after seeing the garden he created for Help for Heroes last year.
Describing how the opportunity arose, he said: "Prince Harry, who had made a private visit to the Help For Heroes garden one evening last year, had requested that I design a garden for Sentebale, and it’s not the sort of request you turn down.
"I went to a meeting at Clarence House with Prince Harry and the Prince of Wales, whose Prince’s Foundation for Building Community is part of the project, and they liked my ideas but it was suggested I should go to Lesotho.
"I went out there last August, and it was exactly what I needed to get a starting point to make sure that what I come up with really feels authentic. I want people who see the garden to feel as if they are looking into Lesotho."
The garden – which will be available to view from May 19-23 – has been funded by eponymous charity, the David Brownlow Charitable Foundation.
Prince Harry’s African inspired garden
