Pots of garden inspiration

I’ve marked this post as an Ad for transparency as I was invited to attend the Garden Press Event where I spoke to suppliers about their products. I am under no obligation to post about the products I saw, and as usual all views and opinions are my own.

Last week I went along to the annual Garden Press Event held at the Design Centre in Islington - you may have seen my Instagram stories on the day. The event was a show for companies to showcase their products to catch the eye of the press and bloggers alike. It was another great day, and although it’s been a few years since my last visit in 2019, but I found it as useful inspirational as I did back then.

It’s also an opportunity for companies to showcase their new products, and there was a notable increase in sustainable products, which can only be a good thing. I spoke to many people learning about their products, and even managed to get some photos of some of them. Not all, though which is frustrating now - but if you get a chance do pop over and check out the Kindling Cracker over at Fandango Firetools, the galvanised steel water butts over at Arthur Jack & Co, and the beautifully colourful bulbs over at Taylors Bulbs.

So what caught my eye?

These garden wool pads by Hortiwool are fantastic - I’ve already seen something similar, mostly when I’ve had cheese delivered! However these 100% British Wool pads can be used extensively in the garden, and won a sustainability award at the show. I’ve previously used as a liner for hanging baskets, but they have so many more uses including as something to kneel on, protection from frost and something I’m keen to try, deterring slugs.

These small bottles from Azpects promise to have a big impact, with each bottle making up to 3 litres of either a deck, algae, patio or exterior fabric cleaner - and let’s be honest at some point we all need some additional help cleaning parts of our garden. And like some of the kitchen/bathroom cleaning products available now, these are concentrated so you can dilute them at home when you need them, which also saves on the amount of packaging too.

I wasn’t the only one to think these Wool pots were fantastic, they one the ‘best new product’ for the day which is voted for by attendees at the show. It was great to speak with this company which I learnt is based in Hammersmith - the sheep capital of the world, or so I’m told. I have some of these and will be testing them out, and will share how I get on.

A lot of gardening is about confidence, and when you’re faced with a blank canvas that must be quite daunting. The Garden on a roll aims to help people overcome that, and with planting schemes for shady, evergreen, Mediterranean and English Country Garden there looks to be something for everyone and every garden.

Unbelievably these pots have been made from ocean waste using reclaimed fishing nets, trawl ropes and boxes which significantly reduces the amount of manufactured plastic by Woodlodge, they also have a range made from wood waste.

Earthy Sustainable also uses waste products made during harvest for their products. They use straw, coffee husks, wheat chaff and bamboo fibre for a range of products, but the ones that caught my eye were these bee, butterfly and bird boxes. They’re frost proof and can be hung from a branch, or can be screwed to a fence or tree with inbuilt fixings.

There were some great gift-type products from the collaboration between Blue Diamond and the National Trust, including seed and twine sets - or Grow & Tie with a sunflower and sweet pea version - two of my favourite garden flowers. The second photo shows one of the ready to grow plant trays which includes bulbs in a biodegradable tray - you simply take off the lid and place the tray in your pot, cover with compost and water and wait for the bulbs to do their thing. The bulbs have been chosen to perfectly partner the height and flowering times, and I’m assured that there’s more to come from this range both on the pot size and bulb varieties, so keep a look out for these and the developments.

And finally there were a couple of things I have my eye on for our potential future garden. These solar powered drop bulb lights by The Solar Centre, which were a winner of the garden lighting, water features and ornamentation award at the show. We have our sparkly little lights, which look fantastic but give out little light so I expect that to be something I’m after this year.

The other thing is on a future garden wish list is an aluminium garden pergola, and the Maze Living pergolas and outdoor furniture at the show were fantastic. I was just glad MOH wasn’t with me, as with their outdoor kitchens I was pretty certain his wish list would be growing way longer than our budget, and I don’t even know what our budget is!

So all in all, a good day with pots and pots of inspiration. I plan to share some of these in more detail over the coming weeks, so look out for those, but in the meantime what caught your eye?

My garden in December and January

It’s been a quiet couple of months in our garden. Winter is obviously usually quieter but it seems even more so because of the weather. In December we had frosts, then our leaves fell and then snow. It’s not been the most inviting of weather to get out into the garden, and so I’m covering two months in this post.

The frosts were certainly pretty, and I loved to see the frosted spider webs though I imagine the spiders were less keen.

The whole garden took on a Narnia-like quality, and we spent quite some time admiring it from inside!

Up until this month the weather had been unseasonably warm and our leaves hadn’t yet fallen. Once the frost and snow had gone nature set about righting that and quite literally overnight we were right back into autumn. At least they all came down at once, usually it is over a longer period - so the clear up was at least shortened too.

Sadly the cyclamen weren’t a fan of the frosts and snow, and looked very sorry for themselves. They haven’t really recovered and the leaves have gone leaving the corms showing. They’ll come back though, I’m sure.

So unusually December was about leaves, frost and snow - quite a way to end a year of strange weather.

And in January…

The frosts continued, but at least the days were bright if not on the cold side. And we’ve had some glorious blue skies. The fatsia is still recovering from the frosts, its leaves drooping just as they did in the drought this summer. Over the month the grass has gradually defrosted, and while it’s not quite a mud bath it’s definitely softer than frozen.

There is signs of new growth though. Among the flower beds the cyclamen leaves (which were in a more sheltered spot so fared better) are now being overtaken by the euphorbias, who in turn have the beginnings of their lime green ‘flowers’.

The bulbs are also pushing their way through the soil. In the pots I have tulips and alliums, and there’s daffodils throughout the garden. I read recently that squirrels don’t like the smell of daffodils and leave them alone, it seems though the scent doesn’t travel that far as the squirrels are more than happy to make holes in the grass, much to MOH’s annoyance.

I’ll leave you with a shot of the faded hydrangea heads. They’re mostly still going strong, having weathered the frosts and the snow - and still manage to look beautiful. I’ll need to check them next time I pop out, to see if the new growth for this year has started yet, or not.

How’s your garden fared this winter?

Errands in The City

On Monday I needed to run some errands in The City. It turned out my timing was impeccable as the sun was out and the temperatures milder than they’ve been all year. So it was rude not to make the most of, what is now an all too rare trip into town. I’d already made sure to catch a glimpse of my favourite City view, looking through to St Stephen Walbrook from St Swithin’s Lane.

The City is one of those places that really does look glorious in the sun, and I couldn’t help but stop and look back towards Bank junction as I crossed over and headed for the ‘wibbly wobbly’ or more properly named Jubilee bridge. My plan was to head over to the Tate Modern, somewhere I’d not been for quite a few years, and to look at the exhibition in the large turbine hall and perhaps a look around some of the other spaces.

I’m very much of a dip in and out type of person when it comes to museums, not someone who has to see everything on every visit. My approach works well when you visit regularly - and we haven’t - but I’m hoping it’s something that we’ll get back to doing more often, and so it’s great to be able to do this for free.

Cecilia Vicuña’s Brain Forest Quipu

The exhibition in the large Turbine Hall is made up of sculpture, sound, music and video. Quipu isn’t something I’d heard of before, but it’s an ancient South American recording and communication system made from knotted threads. Here the artist has worked alongside artists, activists and members of the community on this project with some of the items used in the sculptures collected from the banks of the Thames by women from local Latin American communities.

At the centre of Brain Forest Quipu are two sculptures that hang 27 metres from the ceiling. They are woven together using a range of organic materials, including found objects, unspun wool, plant fibres, rope and cardboard to evoke the look of bleached-out trees and ghostly forms.

It is these two sculptures that capture people’s attention. You can walk among the hanging threads but are asked not to touch them. Along with the audio playing in the hall, as you wander amongst them or sit and let your eye explore the full height of the sculptures, they really do become mesmerising and even mindful.

I was also intrigued by the ‘web’ holding each of the strands, which in some ways was acting as a giant rotary washing line. It was only as I went up to the upper walkways and floors that I got a closer look.

If you’ve not been to the Tate Modern it’s hard to get a sense of scale of these pieces, or of the Turbine Hall which is huge. It’s 155m long, 23m wide and 35m tall - the roof light has 524 glass panels.

And somehow that means the 27m sculptures don’t look that big from a distance - see how small the people on the viewing platform look in the photo below.

So a great day: errands completed, feeling the warmth of the sun and some cultural inspiration too.