Anton Chekhov’s Garden at the Hampton Court Flower Show

Anton Chekhov’s Garden at the Hampton Court Flower Show

Anton Chekhov’s Garden is a project conceived by the Anton Chekhov Foundation. The goal is to create welcoming and tranquil places of beauty in  healing environments in England, Russia and Ukraine where patients receiving care, as well as the personnel providing it, can take respite.  Where possible and applicable, herbs will be used as a low-cost source of natural medicine.

The idea of the Anton Chekhov’s Garden project is inspired by Chekhov’s healing work as a doctor, writer and humanitarian, which itself was inspired by a deep and compassionate awareness of the part played by the natural environment in our physical and spiritual well-being.

The Anton Chekhov’s Garden project will be launched with a show garden at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, 2-8 July 2018, designed by Anna Benn Garden Design and Hannah Gardner of New British Landscapes:  Anna Benn and Chekhov biographer and translator Rosamund Bartlett (founding Trustee of the Anton Chekhov Foundation), were students together in Russia in the 1980s, and went on to co-author Literary Russia: A Guide, 2007.

Anton Chekhov’s Garden at the Hampton Court Show is a Russian-themed garden inspired by Melikhovo, the country estate near Moscow where Chekhov lived in the 1890s, and where he wrote his famous play The Seagull. Also a doctor, Chekhov treated patients here and was a very keen gardener.  The garden is designed to be viewed as Chekhov would have looked out onto it from his wooden verandah, and is a place of tranquility. Set within a rich natural backdrop, it references the traditional Russian dacha garden, bursting in a ramshackle manner with flowers and crops, as well as the meadows and woodland beyond. Herbalism, which has traditionally played a very strong part in Russian medicine and culture is illustrated in the many medicinal plants grown here.

The Anton Chekhov Foundation, a UK-registered charity, was established in 2008 by Chekhov biographer and translator Rosamund Bartlett, working in conjunction with UK-based Russian film maker Elena Michajlowska, who was brought up in Vladivostok. The initial aim was to campaign for the long-term preservation of the remarkable dacha in Yalta which Chekhov built for himself and his family at the end of his life. The charity’s two other Trustees are the UK lawyers Alexander and Isobel Walsh. The goal of the Anton Chekhov Foundation is to honour Chekhov’s literary and humanitarian legacy through a variety of cultural and charitable projects.  Its activities are currently focused on translation projects and the creation of gardens in healing environments.  The charity’s patrons include Sir Tom Stoppard, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Frayn and Henry Marsh.

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