The Newson Health Menopause Garden

* I was invited to the press preview for and provided with a pair of tickets to Gardeners’ World Live so I’m marking posts from the show as 'Ad’ - as usual my views and opinions are very much my own. Be sure to check out all of my posts from the show.

This garden was to empower visitors to the garden to feel empowered to start conversations about their health, and get inclusive and accessible perimenopause and menopause support. And you may automatically assume it’s a space for women, but as Dr Louise Newson said at the Best in Show Awards, which took place after the press preview, menopause is something which directly affects 51% of the population, and 49% of the population indirectly.

She also said while she is a menopause expert she wasn’t a gardener, but had worked with Ruth Gwynn who was an extremely talented garden designer as evidenced by these photos.

The garden is designed to be a place to relax and reflects ways of relieving symptoms of the menopause, and importantly it is also affordable and achievable, and can be done without overwhelm.

The plants were selected to create a visually enriching yet calm atmosphere, and during the show it held talks around relaxation, yoga and nutrition as well as having clinicians and experts on hand with information and advice for those visiting.

The show stopper for this garden was the standalone bath tub with the scented rose bush behind. It was especially appealing on the very warm afternoon we visited, and we weren’t the only ones eyeing it up!

The whole space was incredibly calming, and it was great to see this space at the press preview as I’m sure it would have been a really popular garden at the show. It was also a great way to further raise the awareness of this subject in a non-controversial, practical and inclusive way. It was also a very worthy winner of its platinum and Best Show Garden awards.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was as fabulous as ever!

Challenging what edible gardens can be

* I was invited to the press preview for and provided with a pair of tickets to Gardeners’ World Live so I’m marking posts from the show as 'Ad’ - as usual my views and opinions are very much my own. Be sure to check out all of my posts from the show.

This isn’t any kitchen garden. It’s one that challenges what edible gardens can be, and does it really well. It was one of my favourite gardens at the show, and as is so often the case every time you looked you saw something more.

Initially the borders appear purely ornamental, but every plant in this garden is edible.

Every plant.

Wow.

And you’ll even spot some conventional vegetables in there, along with plenty of inspiration I’m sure.

As with every garden, and one that grows edibles especially, insects are important and so the bug hotel makes every insect welcome. The round corten steel exterior filled with pipes of varying sizes, themselves filled with insect friendly materials also looked good.

As I walked around the garden - in fact I went round twice - I kept seeing more and more plants, some challenged me as being edible, but they were. The cannas I struggled with but its the root that you can eat, and while not something many of us normally have on our plate, it met the criteria for the garden.

Clearly I was far too excitable about the mushrooms growing along the fence as I’ve chopped part of them off - unbelievably this is the best picture I’ve got.

In the greenhouse the plants were enjoying the very warm day, but I was more taken with the extra growing space that these pea shoots and micro herbs were in. I’m keen to get some of these when I get a greenhouse sorted for here - as my plan is to have a greenhouse on the smaller side, so being able to make full use of its space is likely to be key.

It really was a special garden, and well designed by Lucy Hutchinson from She Grows Veg - who also has a fabulous Instagram feed, so do go and check that out for plenty more growing inspiration. It’s also a garden I enjoyed revisiting today on this greyest of grey and wet days.

Roll on the spring!

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was as fabulous as ever!

A beautiful border that's In the Pink

* I was invited to the press preview for and provided with a pair of tickets to Gardeners’ World Live so I’m marking posts from the show as 'Ad’ - as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

The theme for the beautiful borders at the 2023 Gardeners’ World Live was ‘My Garden Escape’, but as ever they were bursting with inspiration and ideas, and lived up to their name of being beautiful.

This week I’m sharing the border designed by the Gardeners’ World presenter Sue Kent, titled In the Pink.

Pink is Sue’s favourite colour and she says that scented flowers are her joy and painting her escape. This border includes all three of these, and I correctly spotted the colour progression from bright pink to white pink, and includes roses and peonies, annuals and perennials and the odd vegetable too.

The spaces aren’t large, but it really does show what you can do in a small space. Even so, the colour progression was clear, so here’s a closer look at each end of the border.

Colour affects our energies and emotions, in this border Sue has created a space ‘for visitors to absorb and assess how that colour makes them feel’ - I know I left with a smile on my face.

But one last picture, the art and painting. Sue explained that painting was important to her, but she also needed something that would cope with all weather and wouldn’t spoil for the show. That ruled out paper and watercolours, as soggy paper wasn’t really the look. So she dug out her pink nail varnishes and a piece of glass and took it from there.

Brilliant, hey? And definitely beautiful. I so wish you could experience the beautiful smell for yourself!

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was as fabulous as ever!