Award winning Glossop landscaper defies odds to walk again

After being told he may never walk again, award-winning Glossop landscaper Rupert Crowton has defied the odds, and is preparing to head off to build at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Rupert, 32, was flying high in 2024, with business ‘blooming’, after winning a gold medal at last year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show for a garden he had built and being already deep into preparation for this year’s show garden build. 

Rupert was also celebrating having recently got married to his partner Savannah and the couple had just returned from their honeymoon. But life then took an unexpected turn when Rupert agreed to help his brother with some tree surgery. During the job, a large five metre rotten tree unexpectedly fell in the wrong direction, hitting Rupert and breaking four vertebrae in his back.      

Rupert then spent six weeks in Manchester Royal Infirmary where he also suffered a near fatal pulmonary embolism from a blood clot which travelled towards his lungs/heart. Having survived that, he was immobile for four months, facing the devastating possibility of life- changing injuries.     

Thankfully, with hard work, a lot of physio and sheer determination, Rupert defied all odds and is walking again and getting back to full strength. He is now completing the final elements of the garden, before packing up and making the trip to Chelsea, to complete the gruelling 10-day garden construction ahead of the show, which open to the public on 20 May 2025.      

The SongBird Survival Garden (see illustration below), has been designed by award winning garden designer Nicola Oakey, with the aim of raising awareness of the SongBird Survival charity and its work in helping to halt the decline of our British songbird populations.

The garden is sponsored by Project Giving Back and the design focusses on the three key elements of shelter, water and food, that are vital in supporting bird life. Nicola Oakey has cleverly designed this playful, immersive garden, from the perspective of a bird foraging for food and water, with two meandering paths mimicking a bird’s movement through the garden’s countryside-inspired planting scheme that offers food, nesting material and shelter.  

Rupert and his team in Glossop have been busy working with Nicola to construct several of the garden’s key structures including a log wall boundary and a human sized birdhouse den which provides the focal point of the garden.      

There was a time when Rupert had thought his award-winning landscape career maybe over. He is therefore elated and eager to head off to London soon in search of another glittering RHS medal. He said, “There were several months when I thought building this garden was a distant dream, but I always had hope that I could prove I would not only walk again but I would build another garden at RHS Chelsea, which is the pinnacle of any landscape contractor’s career. It required determination and a lot of love and support from my family and friends which has helped me get to this positive place.   

He continued, “It's a full-on job building a show garden at RHS Chelsea, and there will be a few times during the 10-day construction, when I will have to lie flat on the floor for a while, to let my back recover. But I am relishing the challenge and looking forward to working with Nicola and the SongBird Survival team to help raise awareness of the Charity’s important work. It has been a rollercoaster of a year but and I am feeling very lucky to be involved in this exciting garden project which we hope the visitors to the show will really enjoy.”      

To find out more about SongBird Survival charity visit: www.songbird-survival.org.uk 

To find out more about award winning garden designer Nicola Oakey visit: www.nicolaoakey.com 

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show takes place in the Royal Hospital Grounds, Chelsea, London SW3 4SR from Tuesday May 20 to Saturday May 24.