Chelsea Flower Show 2013 - The Show gardens

Like most of you who commented on my tour of the small gardens, its the small garden that I tend to get the most ideas from. But if you look carefully you can get some nice planting ideas or small design ideas from the bigger show gardens but they tend to be flamboyant and often seem a bit out of reach for the average gardener. These are also the gardens that get most of the focus from the media, though frustratingly every year the coverage seems to be focused on some gardens and not others. I can't say there were any really innovative gardens this year or any really bonkers one (maybe thats because Diarmuid Gavin didn't have a garden here this year). Some traditional ones, some highlighting important causes and some highlighting particular places.

The first one on our tour was the garden highlighting Stoke-on-Trent including a skeleton of a bottle kiln, once a familiar sight in the Potteries region.

 There was some interesting wall planting which is a common feature at flower shows this year. I like the colour scheme of peach, dark reds, terracotta, lime green and creams.

Kate Gould's garden showed how some former industrial waste ground can be transformed into a modern garden reusing concrete, old timber, crazy paving and steel panels. The quirky feature was the seat made out of an old bath.

The SeeAbility garden was designed to raise awareness on sight loss. It is split into segments by three slate paths with a large Robinia tree in the centre. The tree is shielded from the rest of the garden by what on closer inspection reveals it self as a nice water feature. A wall of metal balls which drip with water..There is a nice oak structure that also divides the garden and finally a copper feature with circles some containing some planting of that lovely daisy Erigeron. I really liked this, it added a sculptural feature to the garden, not sure how I could copy that one though. There are some contrasting planting colours such as the bright yellow grass nexzt to dark purple Heucheras and white Irises and alliums rising from the dark foliage.

Next to a garden which is sponsored by Arthritis Research UK, the charity which funds the research that I'm involved with at the University of Manchester. So always of interest to me and I had wanted to volunteer for the garden but with everything else that has been going on this year I didn't get chance to but maybe another year if they do a garden. This one was designed by one of my favourite designers, Chris Beardshaw who in making the garden has revealed himself to be an arthritis sufferer. Its good to highlight this disease, a disease of which there are many misconceptions, not least the difficulty in diagnosis.

 There are a number of aspects that I loved about this garden, the first were the inspiring sculptures, the divisions of the garden and the planting. This was a lovely flower and I need to find out what it was.

The amazing Echiums.

 The best view is from the front, though you have to be patient!

You then look across main avenue and another gorgeous garden, again not ground-breaking but just something that you can imagine having yourself in your own garden and thats the garden designed by Roger Platt. This garden represents gardening through the years the Chelsea Flower Show has been running. Some lovely planting with a bit for everyone.

The garden by royal appointment got lots of TV coverage, it was designed for Prince Harry and the charity Sentebale by Jinny Blom to highlight the African country of Lesotho which tragically is severely afflicted by both poverty and AIDS. A great cause but I didn't take to the garden, I could sort of see what she was trying to show but wasn't sure about the clay circle in the middle of the garden or patterned patio?

I was really pleased to see that one of my gardening heroes, Nigel Dunnett had at last won a gold medal, he always designs innovative wildlife gardens. This time he'd designed a roof garden with lots of habitats for wildlife.

I particularly liked the plant wall painting above. The dark purple Verbascum's were very striking.
The Laurent-Perrier Garden this year was designed by Ulf Nordfjell and was a very tasteful, but dare I say it a bit boring. I did like the Iris's though.

Next to this was a similar garden, the Telegraph Garden, this is more of a landscape piece rather than a garden and has inspiration from both Japanese gardens with their calm green gardens and also from the English landscape so lots of cow parsley.

The Olympic Games inspired Great Britain last year and I still have amazing memories of those few weeks and one of the gardens here was inspired by the Athletes village at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

I guess the most off the wall garden of the show was the Stockton Drilling's "As Nature Intended" garden featuring plants which have been proven to be extremely useful for man over the years, willow, yew, hornbeam and hazel.

Another of my favourite garden of the show was The Homebase Garden designed by Adam Frost, again its one I can see myself with, its a family garden helping to connect children with growing their own food and with nature, but still room to play and an ornamental garden.

 

 

The Brewin Dolphin Garden was a more modern garden I loved the bright pink wall, the pebbles were wonderful and the frothy planting.

 

 

 

The spread of plant diseases and alien pest invaders have been much in the press this last few years and was the focus of a thought-provoking garden designed by Jo Thompson, a garden of two halves, one with lush green natural planting and one side with a row of dead trees, with a seedling oak tree floating in an island.

 

 

The garden which won best in show was the show-stopping Trailfinders Australian garden by Flemings Nursery. Some lush native planting with a natural billabong and waterfall.Not really something that I can copy in Huddersfield!

 

 

The nursery owner, Wes Fleming, has been a strong presence at the last few Chelsea shows and he was obviously really proud of his gold medal and best in show award that he was showing off to everyone who passed the garden with a brief stand-up comedy routine that kept the audience enthralled.
So their is my tour of the show, its close but I think my favourite garden was the Roger Platt garden with Chris Beardshaw and Adam Frost's gardens close behind. I'm not apologising for being a traditional girl.

Chelsea Flower Show 2013 - The small gardens

I'm sure that you are all a bit bored of Chelsea now, or have completely passed it by, but with everything else that has been going on I'm so behind in my blogging but I like to write up about my visit for my own memories so I hope you'll indulge me. It was the 100th year of the Chelsea Flower Show this year so was one to catch. I try and get down to visit as often as I can and nearly didn't make it this year but had a lovely day trip with my friend Tracy. We are in our element, a nice catch up of news on the train down, time for a relaxing lunch in Carluccios and then to the show for 3.30 entry. Then leave there at 7ish once we can walk round no more and catch the train back home. A long day but a great one and a much needed break.

First we aim for the small artisan gardens which are normally a bit quieter but I think everyone had the same idea this year and it was packed.

The first garden is highlighting the work of the charity WaterAid.

Awash with the cheery orange of marigolds.

Being an honarary Yorkshire lass, may take me longer than 6 years to get accepted fully, I was intrigued by the Welcome to Yorkshire garden celebrating the exciting news that Yorkshire will be hosting the Grand Depart of the Tour de France. The water feature at the front of the garden is highlighting all the towns that the tour will go through. So a quick skim through and there was Huddersfield!

I was quite surprised to find that this garden won the peoples choice for the best small garden.
Moving onto the Walker's Pine Cottage Garden, which I really liked especially the planting, this is my sort of thing lots of alliums, aquilegias and geums.

Not sure about the gold finials but I did like the cloud-pruned pine topiary.

The Un Garreg Garden, meaning One Stone, was designed by two brothers from Brecon in Wales and was another garden with a gorgeous dry stone wall, there were a few around this year.

There was a lovely oak bench very natural placed between two rocks, the planting was very naturalistic.
A lovely whimsical garden chock full of nostalgia was next, filled with old toys, a nice detail of the conkers on strings and the type of tree house you dream about as a child.

It had a gorgeous shrub which I had to search for when I got home, I knew it was a type of Viburnum and just googled Viburnum pom pom and there it was, the proper name is Viburnum opulus 'Roseum'. There was also one in the Roger Platt show garden on Main Avenue. Think I may have to get one of them!

The Hebridean Weaver's Garden was based on a traditional blackhouse on Lewis which is in the Outer Hebrides, the weavers make the Tweed cloth dyed with plants grown in the garden.

A really popular garden was next, it was almost impossible to get close enough to get a decent photo and I only managed one.

This is the exquisite tea house. Kazuyuki Ishihara is a popular designer of the Japanese gardens at Chelsea and his enthusiasm is so infectious when you see him so excited to get his gold medal as well as best small garden from the RHS judges.
Another dry stone wall was found in the next garden called Get Well Soon and a modern take on an apothecary's garden with lots of medicinal plants. A quirky feature was the pebble path which is supposed to walked on with your bare feet so that it can give you a reflexology massage.

So there is a quick tour of the more traditional small gardens, there is also a second category of small gardens which are the Fresh gardens. These tend to have more off the wall designs. Here are a few, we first found Chris Beardshaw being given a tour of the Massachusetts Garden, which is inspired by the poet Emily Dickinson. I did like the leather panels on the wall that were appliqued with common garden flowers.

The Digital Capabilities garden attracted a lot of media attention as it was an interactive garden in that it responded to online social media activity. The plot was divided into two diagonally by a white panelled screen. Every time anyone tweeted #RHSChelsea then one of panels opened letting you get a glimpse of the garden on the other side. I actually really liked the planting on the outside with some gorgeous dusky apricot Verbascums.

Inside was more tropical planting.

But my favourite Fresh garden was The Mindfulness Garden, designed to suggest the chaos of our busy lives where we should make time for quiet contemplation. The planting was inspired by a Jackson Pollock splash painting with dots of colour all round.

Again some of my favourite flowers, Poppies, Veronica, Geums, Aquilegias and Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve'. A zingy mass of flowers going against all the rules of planting in drifts this was just a jumble but for me it worked.
So there is my tour of the small gardens, I'll focus on the main show gardens in the next post.

Rushing headlong into summer

Where has this year gone to, I can't believe its the 6th month already, its all been a bit of a blur. We had a stunted spring and this week we seem to have rushed into summer with some glorious sunshine and some welcomed warmth. The late cool spring has had some benefits the blossom has been glorious and the bulbs have flowered for ages, my tulips have been out for nearly a month and are only just going over now. I think that has been because it has been quite constant weather,  and probably when you think about it, quite good growing weather, with some rain, a few dry days but quite a steady temperature. Though we remember the cold dull summer, my feeling is that one of the worst things that happened last year was the abnormally warm and dry March which was followed by some snow and frosts which started plants off into growth too early and then cut them down. The blossom suffered the most, this year though the blossom has been glorious, even on the ornamental trees. I've got two quite old apple trees in my garden and one is pretty scraggly now but even that one has flowered well this year. At my allotment last year I planted a dwarf apple tree 'James Grieve' and it has blossomed well this year so I'm hoping for my first crop later in the summer.

I don't want to say it too loudly as this weather may not last and we may have another cold wet summer but so far things are growing well at the allotment, I'm really pleased. Not sure whether that is due to the better weather or the fact that I've smothered my plot in masses of well-rotted manure this year and my plants are noticeably more healthy looking and seem to be getting growing quicker after planting out.

So here's an update. Most importantly I've now got my bench at the allotment. Though so far its not got much use, the odd breather but as soon as I sit down I notice something else I was going to do and up I get! It does need a sand down and a re-paint. Its my old one from my garden. I've put a couple of hanging baskets either side with some strawberry plants and I hope I'll be nibbling some of them soon.

So from the top of the allotment down, starting with the two long raised beds. In the brassica bed I've planted some Calabrese 'Marathon', Broccoli 'Romanesco' and Cauliflower 'All the year round'. This is my first attempt at growing cauliflower so we'll have to see how it goes.

I acquired some blue piping which is much better in covering the plants with netting to stop the pigeons which are a real problem on this site, but it was just a bit left over from a job at the local cricket club so need to get some more.

My bed dividers, the chives are looking fab and the butterflies are appreciating them.

Further along this bed are the legumes, I sowed some peas direct into the soil and they took so long to come up that I'd also sowed some more in modules which I planted in between the direct sown rows, but then they all came up so I've got 4 rows of peas, strictly probably too close. But so far doing OK.

I've got lots of healthy broad beans, some which I sowed direct and some from modules. The wigwam is for some runner beans, I sowed some direct but only one has come up. I've got some that I've sowed in pots to fill in the gaps. I've also sowed some dwarf french beans which will fill the rest of this bed.

My onion bed has been split this year. In this bed are the over-wintering onion 'Electric Red' which was swelling nicely, some garlic (again some direct and some module-gown) and some Elephant Garlic which is a new one for me. There also some Shallots, 3 different types, 'Golden Gourmet', 'Red Sun' and some long thin shallots called 'Longor'.

My maincrop onions 'Stuttgarter Giant' and 'Karmen' are in a different bed as there are plans to make a sort-of greenhouse in the onion bed this year. 

My real disastrous bed last year was the roots bed, no luck with beetroot, the celeriac was completely eaten by slugs, carrots and parsnips didn't germinate. All-in-all a waste of space. This year its looking better. I did try sowing the beetroot direct but again no germination but the ones sown in modules are now growing well. So pleased about that as I need some for the Allotment Show. I will sow some more soon too.

Not only do I have beetroot growing in this bed but also the celeriac seems to be ok now, I did keep some seedlings back in case the first lot were eaten by slugs but they don't seem too much of a problem so far this year. But also have some Florence Fennel and some spinach in this bed so already more successful than last year.

Potatoes growing well now.

You can tell that its not been too bad for slugs and snails as I've also managed to grow some lettuce at the allotment, I usually leave those for the garden where I can keep a closer eye on it but my plot neighbour had some spare seedlings of an iceberg type lettuce so I've had a go and then I've sown some 'Little Gem' and some speckled Cos lettuce 'Freckles' and planted them too which are just getting going.

Elsewhere on the plot, I've planted some sweetcorn 'Lark' and may put another patch elsewhere and I'm busy hardening off my courgettes, cucumbers and squash ready to plant out which I will do the end of this week.

Fruit-wise I've already mentioned the apple tree, my rhubarb has been wonderful and I've had lots from that, the one in the opposite bed which I planted last year is growing well too and I'm hoping I can also crop from that next year. My gooseberries and redcurrants are covered in fruits so I'm keeping an eye on them. The strawberries are also covered in flowers and my 3 patches have now been mulched with straw.

The alpine strawberries which edge the beds had looked very straggly at the end of the winter but a good haircut and they have come back strong.

At the bottom of the plot which is quite damp and a bit shady I've got a thornless blackberry, 3 raspberry canes and a Tayberry. The raspberries I'm hoping for a crop from in the autumn and the Tayberry which languished a bit last year has grown with vigour this year and may need some taming.

Flowers are coming into bloom too, I've got self-seeded Calendula, Cerinthe, Nigella and Borage all over the plot which will add some colour soon. I've also sown some Calendula seed from Flighty which I've kept separate. I've planted out some sunflowers, another thing that was defeated by the slugs last year, and some Echium and Tithonia. I've a few things still to go in like some Dahlias and Cosmos. I've some lovely Camassias, a pale blue' which are loved by the bees.

I picked my first bouquet of the year the other day, the lovely chive flowers, with pale blue Veronica and some bronze fennel which I topped up with some Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve' from my garden.

I'm loving the Veronica, I've got a patch at the allotment but I've also got a whole row in my garden at home its so easy to propagate and its spread from a small patch which I got from my mums garden and it has lovely delicate flowers which bloom from the bottom upwards so flower for quite a long while and then the rosettes of the leaves are nice and largely evergreen. I think thats going to spread round my front garden next.

Apologies for the long post but I've had a lot to catch up on.