Arit Anderson on the heartbreak behind her new Chelsea garden

The garden designer and TV presenter reveals why her mission to raise awareness of Parkinson’s through this year’s Chelsea Flower Show is so deeply personal.

Portrait of Arit Anderson standing in front of a blossom tree

By Lucy Hall | Published - 9 Feb 2026

Receiving a life-limiting diagnosis can be devastating, not only for the one at the centre of medical attention but for the family supporting them, too. Watching your loved one go through this fires all the emotions, from anger and disbelief to grief and helplessness.

For Arit Anderson, one of our most popular gardening TV presenters, the news of her sister’s diagnosis with Parkinson’s has been life changing.

“I was broken-hearted to hear that news,” Arit shares, “because she’s the most positive, upbeat person, who’d already been through cancer, and I felt awful for her that this was something she couldn’t get better from. I found it so difficult to make sense of.”

It was not Arit’s first encounter with Parkinson’s, as her uncle also died with the condition some years before, when even less was understood about this complex and degenerative neurological disorder.

“I really didn’t understand it at that time – and even when I noticed a tremor in my sister’s hand, we put it down to stress,” she says. “So when Julie was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, it felt very personal.”

As a garden designer, as well as a TV presenter and writer, Arit instinctively felt for a creative way to help her sister, beyond the logistical support of hospital visits and specialist care.

Gardening and connecting with nature can help those living with Parkinson’s

Through her role as a Trustee for the National Garden Scheme (NGS), which raises millions of pounds for health charities, she discovered the work of Parkinson’s UK in driving groundbreaking research into treatments – which include time spent in gardens.

This was the catalyst Arit needed to bring the message to a wider audience, that gardening and connecting with nature can ease, though not cure, the effects of living with Parkinson’s.

“It’s deemed to be one of the fastest-growing disorders in the world, yet it's largely misunderstood,” she explains. So, this year she’s creating an inspirational garden on the world’s biggest horticultural stage, the Chelsea Flower Show, to share practical ways and design solutions shown to work.

“Before committing, I spoke to my sister and the family, as it was such a personal story to put out there,” Arit says. “We decided to go for it because the cause is greater than any personal concerns. And we agreed from the outset that this isn’t about the doom and gloom of Parkinson’s, but about how gardening can help as the condition progresses.”

Illustration showing an aerial view of Arit Anderson's Chelsea garden — An illustration showing how Arit’s garden will look

In recent years, Arit has been a key presenter in the BBC’s coverage of the international flower show, quizzing designers on their style and motivations, so this year the tables will be turned.

“While I’ve made gardens at Chelsea before, it’s the first time I’ll be in the running for medals there. So, in the back of my head, I’ll be aware of the scrutiny of peers and profile of the show,” she explains. “But what drives me to do it is there’s more people who can gain from learning about Parkinson’s than I can lose – my ego is irrelevant.”

To create the design, Arit led a workshop of NGS garden owners living with the condition, to understand how their real-world solutions make gardening not only possible but pleasurable. “I wanted to come away with the design principles that would embed why gardens are good for you – so the group, who I call our head gardeners, helped me,” she says.

“We covered everything from the practicalities of how it can help with fine motor skills, exercise and movement – overcoming stiffness, anxiety and freezing – to the benefits of just being out in a garden space, for those who can’t garden.

“These have all been turned into useable ideas that anyone can take away and try at home.”

Arit’s lifelong love of the outdoors

Gardening was not an early experience for Arit, who was raised with six other siblings by a busy, single, foster mum in Hertfordshire. While there was outdoor space, it was for letting off steam not picking flowers.

“In the 1970s, it was a punishment to stay indoors!” says Arit. “If you couldn’t get outside, or play in the woods and fields, it was torture for us kids. Not like today!”

But she credits her sister Julie with being the one in the family who set her on the path to a career inspired by nature – albeit after a detour of 25 years into the competitive world of fashion. For her 17th birthday, Julie gave Arit an aromatherapy kit, and the scents and experiences from using it created a life-long fascination with how our minds respond when certain senses are triggered.

“Physically, that’s what started me on this journey,” Arit says. “It made me understand that if I feel good about myself and you feel good about yourself, then the world is a better place. That’s what I’ve been striving for, all this time.”

Five people around a table at a Parkinson's UK gardening workshop — Parkinson's UK

Her interest in healthier living developed alongside her burgeoning career in mainstream fashion, as she studied and practised alternative therapies – in massage, reflexology and as a spiritual healer. “I’ve always believed in finding ways to help people feel better – even in the fashion world, where it was all about business. But in reality, my work and my passion for helping others were running parallel.”

Only when she became immersed in her first garden, in her early 40s, with a growing interest in teaching, did she realise how to link the two – and that's when she left fashion behind to leap into the unknown.

“Getting my own garden gave me this interplay with nature, and the realisation that the more you nurture it, the more it nurtures you,” she explains. “So, I knew that gardening was the next step for me, even though I was 100% a complete novice.”

A new career in garden design

So, back to school she went – to the renowned Capel Manor College, where she studied garden and landscape design, with a strong focus on sustainability. She found early success as the winner of the Fresh Talent award at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2013, before picking up a gold medal at the RHS Hampton Court show in 2016. She has since created two show features for the Chelsea Flower Show: the Garden of Hope, which demonstrated the restorative powers of gardening, and the Peat-Free Garden, which championed sustainability.

“I’m determined to help bring gardening to the wider public agenda, because I do worry that people think its health benefits are a trend, and that they'll move onto the next thing,” Arit says. “All the research shows the huge benefits of gardening – not just as an activity but in being observational, which creates a fantastic connection with nature and can be so beneficial.

"Yet still only about half the population actually gardens, and a lot of people simply don’t have access. We have to make it easier for people to garden, in private or public spaces.”

She laughs as she says this, admitting she now has little time herself to garden in her own private hideaway in west London – which she shared with the nation when she and her stepchildren filmed from there during lockdown. But her business, TV and charity commitments have spiralled since then, leaving her little time to enjoy her own garden beyond walking through it to her studio every morning.

“Each year, I promise myself the headspace to work in the garden – then another amazing opportunity comes in and I feel I have to go with it,” she says.

“I do feel blessed because coming into gardening from nowhere, without a concerted plan, I never expected to be on such a large stage with my ideas. I just hope I’m helping.”

The Parkinson’s UK Garden, funded by Project Giving Back, will be unveiled at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show between 19 and 23 May. Buy tickets at RHS, with live coverage on the BBC.

Written by: Lucy Hall

Lucy Hall is a garden expert, editor, presenter, podcast creator and writer. She's a trustee of the National Garden Scheme and formerly editor of BBC Gardeners' World Magazine and associate publisher of Gardens Illustrated.

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