SOUND artist Justin Wiggan from Falmouth was part of a team that wowed judges with an installation at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The Octavia Hill Garden was a Silver Gilt medal winner, and was named the People’s Choice Best Show Garden and the RHS Children’s Choice Award winner.

National Trust founder Octavia Hill (1838–1912) was a pioneering social reformer who believed “the healthy gift of air and the joy of plants and flowers” were vital in everyone’s life. She worked tirelessly to improve urban housing and protect green space, yet one third of Brits still don’t have access to nature-rich spaces today.

Conceptually located on an urban brownfield site, this plant-filled urban community wildlife garden is designed to stimulate physical, mental and social wellbeing, increase biodiversity and encourage visitors to feel part of nature.

For the past six months, Justin has been using technology to convert energy from plants into sounds to form a soundscape. This is played within the garden, to appeal to visitors with sensory loss and additional access needs. It includes a speech by Octavia Hill discovered by the artist and presented as a new poem: Whispers of better things to come to us.

The garden design was led by Ann-Marie Powell in collaboration with the National Trust and Blue Diamond Garden Centres - which include Trelawney at Wadebridge. It hit the headlines when Dame Judi Dench planted a sapling from the sycamore felled at Sycamore Gap in Northumberland.

An associate artist at the Hall For Cornwall in Truro, Justin’s soundscape Off By Heart encapsulated the memories and stories of Truro’s City Hall. Through his company Glass Twin he has created ‘sonic safe spaces’ where users can go to shed negative emotions by using guided breathing combined with calming sounds.

These have included a Sonic Sound Bench for Cornwall Fire and Rescue at its Tolvaddon centre; a film that could be accessed at Cornwall’s job centres; a soundscape created with pupils from Truro Learning Academy and heard via special posts in the school grounds; and online spaces created for Cornwall Hospice Care.