Towering vegetables

After yesterday’s plot update, I’m staying with veg for today’s post and I’ll freely admit to a little bit of veg envy, but buckets of admiration for this fantastic display of vegetables at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. Not only are they expertly displayed, they look fantastic, don’t they?

 I was as mesmerised by the display as ever, along with the uniformity of the produce too. While I might be able to grow veg on the allotment, with more success than others in some of our choices, I’m not sure I’ll ever rival these, or display my beans like this!

And like all good displays there’s plenty to keep your eye entertained, the more I look at these photos the more I see. Like the vine tomatoes grown on the left of the picture above, the round yellow cucumbers that really do look like lemons (also the photo above, centre bottom) and the contrasting unruliness of the rebel red peppers (top right)

But there was veg in pots too, and pots really are a viable option for veg - in fact I’m contemplating keeping some tomatoes in pots, and in the greenhouse this year, rather than on the plot in an attempt to avoid blight. 

Everything just looked so vibrant, and well, edible. I hadn’t realised that this stall was the nursery that is “home to to the mammoth onion” or else I might have paid them more attention. 

Talking of tomatoes I was pleased to see a mix of known and new-to-me varieties, the naming of the variety “big green” did make me smile, because they were big and they were green - there was no hype in that name, was there?

Actually I do have a shot of some large onions. Compare those at the bottom of the pyramid to the tomatoes alongside them, and they are pretty large.

We’ve had success with beans on our plot, and long may that continue. This year we didn’t manage any broad beans, but seeing them at the bottom of the shot below, reminds me I should add some to my shopping list soon.

So, it’s not just flowers at the Chelsea Flower Show, there’s expertly displayed veg too providing a both a smile and the inspiration to get back over to our plot and start on that digging...

Highlights of my Chelsea (part 2)

In this second highlights post from my visit to the Chelsea Flower Show on Monday I'm sharing my highlights from inside the Great Pavilion (read part one to see my highlights from the show gardens, artisan gardens and the space to grow gardens).

The Great Pavilion is huge.  Two football pitches worth of flowery gorgeousness.  I started off with a methodical up and down each row approach and then got distracted and that plan went out of the window.  I *thought* I'd seen everything it had to offer, but I've since realised I didn't - not sure how, but I did see a lot...

One of the corners was dedicated to floral displays, there were floral thrones and floral arches, and there was a definite nod to the Royal Wedding.  I'll share more in a future post, but for now there's a close up of one of the arches, which also had a heart-shaped "window" built in.

ALLIUMS, AGAPANTHUS, TULIPS, ROSES AND MORE

THE HEART SHAPED 'WINDOW' WITH ADDED SUCCULENTS

There was the usual display of neatly arranged alliums, and instead of the more usual purple ones I thought I'd share this pale pink version.  Even looking at this picture I'm making a mental note to get more alliums for my own garden next year.

I think this floral horse and cart was one of the areas where my logical plan went awry - I was quite literally drawn to it, it's beautiful isn't it?

I'm a fan of the wire mesh type sculptures and the figures on this stand were fantastic.  The planting was evocative of a journey through a pretty meadow, and the smell here was fantastic.  As I've been editing my photos I've realised that a sure fire way of seeing just how much I liked a stand was by the number of photos I've taken, and I've a few of these, so you can expect to see more of this at a future date.

You knew there'd be cacti at some point didn't you?  And you're right a highlights post wouldn't be mine without some, these ones have the added bonus of having brightly coloured flowers too, so a double win in my books.

While we're talking bright colours, just look at the colour of this plant in the greenhouse, which I snuck myself into. The leaves have an almost waxy, succulent like look about them, but the flowers have a touch of asters about them don't they?  I'll be doing some detective work on this one I think.

Actually while we're on colour this Flower Market made me smile, as where else would you have blooms laid out to resemble veg (and with real veg there too)?

I mentioned in my first post that there was a fair bit of corten steel on show and in the Stihl inspired garden by Hillier Nurseries, there was more - and I'm really not complaining. 

I quite randomly appear to have chosen both sides of these pots for this post, but doesn't the blue of the ceanothus look great against the steel backdrop in the photo below? 

This iris, and those around it also caught my eye, isn't the colour exquisite?  Almost golden. I think I might need some irises in my garden at some point...

The planting at Chelsea is often dense and that's a style I love - I'm not keen on seeing earth between plants - I was pleased to spot these upturned, and crooked sleepers, and it reminded me that this was very much our preferred approach to our gabion basket area on one point, now though I can't imagine anything other than our quirkily filled wire baskets.

The Great Pavilion was also good for some celeb spotting, the lady of the left is Beverley Knight and she was a good sport trying out the Steel Drum, she admitted after the photos she had no idea but quite enjoyed herself. I bumped into her a few times around the show and the lady next to her was always with her.  I don't know who the man is on the end of the photo, but I did recognise the man with the medals.  Me being me had no idea of his name until later, it's Johnson Beharry who in 2005 was awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in Iraq, and was the first living recipient of the award in thirty years.

He was, as you'd expect, super nice and I was proud to shake his hand and in fact he was one of the few people (or celebs) that I spoke to.  I also learnt later on that he was born in Grenada which explained why he was at the Grenada stand. I'm not a fan of the celebrity culture, and I do think that we should aspire and recognise people that achieve great things, rather than those that don't, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, back to the flower show.  As you can see I'm back at the greenhouse from earlier, but this time it's a much more refined affair, with greens and succulents for lunch, and a soft cushioned chair to sit on.

Actually the chairs reminded me of something similar from my 2015 visit - remember my Bumping into Alice in the Chelsea Wonderland post, if not pop over and have a look, it's definitely fairy tale.

I've a couple more photos to share in this post (and plenty more for a few other days) but I couldn't end without a peony shot, and not just any old peony shot, the colours of the petals here had me fascinated.

As did one of the clematis displays, there were wave after wave of clematis on these structures lapping at the beach.  It was a great way to display them and fun too, and yes you've guessed it there'll be more of these photos at some point too.

So there's my highlights in sixteen or so photos, I tell you narrowing it down took quite some doing!  

Highlights of my Chelsea (part 1)

Ah, how I wished I'd not started my previous post with "what a weekend" as yesterday was really quite a day.  It wasn't the quite so early start I'd been contemplating (but really that shouldn't be any surprise) but it was a day full of the Chelsea Flower Show and my best experience yet of the show.  I'd applied for and been granted press accreditation for the show, and so off I went on Press Day, and the whole day had a friendly mix of formal and informality about it, and it worked rather well.

There was plenty of time and space to take pictures, photographers were courteous and the celebs and well known faces were also gracious. I unexpectedly caught up with some of the organisers and attendees of my Stihl press trip to Austria and it was great to see them. I had a chat with Elaine Paige on the corner of the Yorkshire garden, bumped into James Martin a couple of times, had a giggle with Su Pollard as she took charge of a photo and as you'll see towards the end of this post heard more than one voice I recognised, and of course saw some wonderful gardens and planting, and in the sun too.

I took way too many photos, we're talking hundreds here, walked over eleven kilometres which adds up to nearly seventeen thousand steps.  And with such a step count, I felt it was ok to get the bus back from the station.  Given I have so many photos to go through, I've split my highlights post into two, today I'll share my highlights from the gardens and will follow up with a highlights from the Great Pavilion, so let's get going shall we?

Artisan gardens

There are seven artisan gardens, but I only managed to see five on my visit - I could go back on Wednesday, but as I'm double booked it may not happen - if I do then I'll head along and find the remaining two.  I made a beeline for these as soon as I arrived as before when I've been they've been rammed, and you end up shuffling along the Serpentine Walk, which is never pleasant, so I planned to avoid that by heading there first.

It seems though Press Day was a little bit more relaxed, which if you think about it makes sense.  The first garden, the Viking Cruises Wellness garden includes a Nordic spa - a sauna, and a plunge pool and definitely had the feel of tranquility about it.  And it was here that I started to suspect things might be a little different today.  It was when Anneka Rice posed almost in front of me with two dogs, and all dutifully looked at everyone in the crowd.

TRANQUIL PLANTING IN THE VIKING CRUISES IN THE GOLD MEDAL WINNING WELLNESS GARDEN

Moving along to the next artisan garden I got another feel for how the day might go, and while I did bump into Nick Knowles continually for the rest of the day, that wasn't it. Instead I'm talking about the film crew and interviews, neither were pushy but they were there to do a job.  When I got home yesterday this Nick Knowles interview was one of the ones covered in the afternoon show.

NICK KNOWLES INTERVIEWING IN THE LACED WITH HOPE SILVER MEDAL GARDEN

Space to Grow gardens

There were eight of these gardens with the overall theme of health and wellbeing which are aimed at improving our own wellbeing "as well as displaying solutions to some of the environmental issues facing us today" - which will become clearer the more posts I share.  The Space to Grow gardens were a new category at this year's show and it'll be interesting to see if this category remains in future years - I hope so, I'm all about the gardens.

THE TEXTURAL BLOCKS IN THE SILVER-GILT MEDAL SPACE TO GROW SKIN DEEP GARDEN

The concrete blocks are certainly eye catching, especially with the traditional buildings and lovely blue sky behind them.  They represent people with varying skin conditions and is a "window into our genetic past" which all sounds very deep, until you realise it's a garden created for an established UK skincare company.

I liked the texture and fun they brought to the garden, and while it might not be something that could be replicated in domestic gardens on this scale, adding a concrete block or two and mixing the sizes is totally something that could be borrowed.

The concept of the Seedlip garden was easier for me to grasp, and that's to show how edibles can be grown beautifully at home.  If my edibles every looked anywhere near as pretty as this, then I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be on the allotment route we currently are, but that's a whole other story.

YELLOW LUPINS AND GREEN PEAS IN THE APPROPRIATELY GOLD MEDAL SEEDLIP GARDEN

The Chelsea gardens have an attention to detail that I'm unlikely to achieve in my own garden, in the Seedlip garden that was the pea motif used throughout the garden, and even split peas used in some of the paths and paving - I'll share more on this though another day.

I've included the sculpture from the Myeloma UK garden as it was so striking. It's heavy too, made of perspex it weighs 7.5 tonnes and that's not all the combined weight of the boulders in this garden weighs eighteen tonnes, so it's far from a lightweight garden. The sculpture was built by the team that constructed the London 2012 cauldron, so they've got form but on this occasion took home a medal colour not available in the Olympics, Silver-Gilt.

THE SCULPTURE IN THE MYELOMA UK SILVER GILT SPACE TO GROW GARDEN

The Urban Flow garden was one of my favourites, I am rather partial to a bit of Corten Steel, which there was plenty of at this Chelsea.  This installation shows its versatility as a material, it's a strong material that with the cut out detail can also look more delicate.  The judges, it seems, also approved of the garden which is designed with water conservation in mind and awarded it as the Best Space to Grow garden.

LACE PATTERNED CORTEN STEEL IN THE GOLD MEDAL URBAN FLOW GARDEN

Show gardens

I told you there was a fair bit of Corten Steel at the show didn't I?  This next garden is as it says on the RHS website "garden theatre" and shows how sculptures and planting can work so well together.  This was one of my favourite gardens so it was disappointing to learn that the judges awarded it only a Bronze, but of course we don't know exactly what they were judging it on.  But in all honesty, it won't spoil my enjoyment of it, nor will I'm sure spoil others' views either.

STEEL STRUCTURES IN THE BRONZE MEDAL DAVID HARBER & SAVILLS GARDEN

The M&G garden is a garden of contrasts, how the plants play against the terracotta toned walls which are made of rammed earth and for me the beauty was those contrasts, and with yellow, lime green and pink plants it was always going to be popular with me.

VIBRANT PLANTING IN THE GOLD MEDAL WINNING M&G GARDEN

SET AGAINST THE DUSKY PINK TERRACOTTA STRUCTURES

The Morgan Stanley Garden for the NSPCC designed by Chris Beardshaw won the Best Show garden and now I know, it's easy to see why - it really was a delight.  The garden's design "is a metaphor for the emotional transition that takes place in a child as they experience the positive impact of the NSPCC’s work. At the start of the garden the direction of the path in the woodland is unclear. As it turns a corner it leads to a more open and tranquil space, filled with soft, textured perennials. The path steps up onto a bespoke cedar wood pavilion, enclosed, at the rear, by a calm, reflective canal".

It was a delight to see, and calming.
 

PLANTING AROUND THE WOODEN PAVILION IN THE GOLD MEDAL AND BEST IN SHOW MORGAN STANLEY FOR NSPCC GARDEN

In total contrast the Trailfinders South African Wine Estate garden was great fun, densely planted, but fun.  It uses plenty of plants that are native to South Africa that we regularly use in our own gardens - the red hot pokers, the agapanthus - yes, those garden staples come from South Africa.

RED HOT POKERS IN THE SILVER-GILT TRAILFINDERS SOUTH AFRICAN WINE ESTATE GARDEN

BLACKENED REMAINS OF OLDER PLANTATION

THE HOMESTEAD SECTION IN THE TRAILFINDERS SOUTH AFRICAN WINE ESTATE GARDEN

For me the LG Eco-City was a contender for my favourite garden - I may well have been swayed by the colour of the planting, but it's also a garden I would love to own, and I don't think you can ask for a better testimony than that, can you?  But perhaps it's practicalness wasn't quite for the judges as it was awarded Silver-Gilt.

A VIEW OVER THE SUNKEN SEATING AREA IN THE LG ECO-CITY GARDEN WHICH WAS AWARDED SILVER-GILT

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE PLANTING

ADMIRING THE SCULPTURE IN THE LG ECO-CITY GARDEN

The shot above with the sculpture and moss bubbles was an element I loved.  Moss, because of its eco properties, it's great for combatting air pollution and obviously doesn't need mowing.  The sculpture because it's beautiful, but also because it reminded me of the giant hare I saw at Chatsworth back in 2014.  Looking back at that sculpture, it's easy to see why it jogged my memory isn't it?

Remember at the start of this post I said I heard many familiar voices, well I did, and on hearing yet another familiar voice I turned around to see Monty Don behind me, and I'm not embarrassed to admit I had a bit of a fan girl moment.  

I HEARD A FAMILIAR VOICE BEHIND ME AND TURNED TO SEE MONTY

So there's part one, you can see why I'm splitting my highlights into two - it's been quite a jaunt around the show hasn't it?  I'll also share more from around the show, and from each of the gardens, but my next task is editing the photos from the Great Pavilion - wish me luck, and if you're going to the show, then have a great day and let me know which garden - or gardens - caught your eye.