The Chelsea Flower Show is a generally friendly and classy event, surrounded by peonies and sipping champagne. But this year, pruning shears were drawn as gardeners clashed over the use of AI in exhibit design.
Award-winning designer Matt Keightley, who has created gardens for figures such as Prince Harry, is using artificial intelligence to design his own garden for the prestigious show at the Royal Hospital Gardens in Chelsea, London next week.
He’s launching a new app called Spacelift, which he says mimics the work of garden designers and allows people to create spaces from scratch.
Mr Keatley said: “We are used to using technology to design every part of our homes except the garden. Spacelift changes that. Spacelift gives people a starting point, a plan and the confidence to not just imagine but actually create something.”
Gardeners have expressed concern that their work could be automated in this way.
Andrew Duff, Chairman of the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers, said: ‘Successful garden design is an art form – it is rooted in creativity, collaboration, experience and relationships.
“While technology may provide useful tools, it cannot replicate the insight, empathy, and personal involvement that comes from working with a skilled garden designer to create a living, evolving natural space within your home.”
Garden designer Yvonne Price, who has exhibited at the RHS Hampton Court, said Chelsea should not give AI gardens a platform. “It feels like a betrayal that AI gardens should be shown at Chelsea, the world’s leading trade show for garden design.”
Award-winning designer Nadine Mansfield asked, “What time does the vocational center open?”
Some gardens are already using AI to tell plants when to water them and map out which types of flowers are appropriate as the climate changes.
Chelsea gold medalist Tom Massey has used AI before, but had never designed his own garden. Last year in Chelsea, we created a garden where visitors could “hear” the city’s trees, with sensors monitoring growth, sap flow, soil conditions, air quality and weather patterns. We used AI to track this data and identify patterns and issues.
But Massey says that’s completely different from being a “robot designer.” “I don’t think you’ll see robot designers going out there and doing research and designing gardens. I don’t think many people like that idea. I’m worried about that. I’m worried about what impact it will have on the industry. I can give all my designs to an AI and it can produce something very similar to it,” he said.
He added that a garden designed by AI would be inferior because it “doesn’t have the interaction with my physical body and natural space that I need.”
The AI app is showcasing three life-sized gardens in Chelsea, all of which will be designed using the platform. These include a pastoral plan using reclaimed materials, a compact urban balcony garden and a woodland-themed wellbeing space with sauna and cold shower.
Spacelift disagrees that garden designers will lose their jobs because of apps. Alexandra Davison, Head of PR and Partnerships at Spacelift, said: “This platform is designed to serve the vast majority of UK homeowners who are currently completely priced out of professional garden design. It does not compete with designers, but rather expands the market. Space lift users who start investing in their gardens arrive with more information, a clearer overview and more realistic expectations, which benefits the entire profession.
Mr Duff said his guild would run a campaign to demonstrate the value of human work in garden design. “Just as CAD has evolved to support the design process, AI may become a useful tool for inspiration, visualization and concept exploration, but it cannot replace the human understanding, creativity, accountability and experience that is at the heart of successful garden and landscape design.
“As Chair of SGLD, I see this as an opportunity to communicate more clearly than ever the value that professional designers bring: creating gardens that are thoughtful, functional, sustainable and deeply connected to both people and place.”
