A garden for all weathers

* I was invited to this year’s Gardeners’ World Live and provided with a pair of tickets to the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

Given the weather we’ve had recently, which seems to have been everything from summer to winter in a matter of days, sharing this garden seems appropriate!

Lyn’s Garden: a garden for all weathers was designed and built by August Ponds Ltd and won a Silver Award at the show, and it looks at how we can continue to have a garden that can be enjoyed with year-round interest in light of changes to our climate, while also being mindful of the environment.

Looking towards the front door, through dense and lush planting with a stepping stone path dotted with plants
the gravel path with pavers and interspersed with plants on the left, with a small tree closer to the house and in the foreground a metal sculpture taking the form of gunnera and facilitating the waterfall

There’s much I like in this garden, but there’s also a couple of things that I’m unsure about.

To me that very much looks like a front door on the house at the back, and it’s great to have a good looking front garden, as well as a back garden but I can’t get my head around having a table and chairs in a front garden. And yes, I know this isn’t a real garden and is demonstrating what we could have.

The main feature of the garden is a pondless waterfall that is fed by rainwater collected from the house roof, which I could get on board with as given the amount of rain we have at times it would be good for us to manage the rainwater in our gardens. The waterfall means the water is aerated and therefore allows the water in the main harvesting unit to remain fresh for use for irrigation.

The planting with hostas, euphorbias and acers and plenty more

I loved the planting which was chosen for their hardiness and ability to withstand winter rains and summer drought conditions, and I love how densely it’s planted. That’s definitely something I could use and learn from, but I’m unsure about the plants dotted in between the pavers.

The foreground shows a brightly coloured mosaic table and chairs on a paved area, on the left is the gunnera shaped waterfall (just) with more trees which will screen the house when grown

I just don’t think they work on a practical level. I know that I’d be tripping over the plants, or kicking them, as I wandered up the path with my shopping etc - though of course that would be comedy gold for anyone watching!

Don’t get me wrong, as a show garden it looks great - and that table is definitely swoon worthy, but as a front garden this one doesn’t work for me. Which is fine, especially as I don’t actually have a front garden!

But the planting, that’s definitely something I can get onboard with.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was quite a show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did the show.

Thinking of the moon and stars, and bats...

* I was invited to this year’s Gardeners’ World Live and provided with a pair of tickets to the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

This garden, designed by Wouter Leyssen, was accompanied by and information stand hosted by one of the garden’s sponsors, the Bats Conservation Trust which is what initially caught our attention, but more on bats later.

To give this Beautiful Border it’s full title - The Milky Way - Thinking of the moon and stars, connects the night and day garden. Dark leaved plants allow the visitor to experience the alien world of the night garden during the daytime. When the usual green colours disappear, things start to look unfamiliar and look like a different world, and as you can see from the photos below it’s quite effective in replicating those night time shades.

Dark leafed plants either side of the gravel path which repesents the Milky Way

They’re hard to see in these photos, but the borders were scattered with white flowers (look bottom right in the photo below), and these represent the stars.

A wider view of the garden and the russet/black leaved hedging. A black chair at the end of the path complete with a telescope

The white-green spherical evergreen shrub in front of the gate represents the moon, and the gravel path the Milky Way - which just goes to show with imagination almost anything can be replicated into a garden design, doesn’t it?

Looking at the chair and telescope from a different angle, with a galvanised watering can in the raised bed in the foreground

And the bats?

Well we were intrigued as we have a couple of bats which fly around our garden at twilight, and were keen to find out more about these peculiar little creatures. It was great to chat to the people on the information stand, and learn a little more about the fascinating species that so many of us are often quite oblivious about.

Did you know…

  • All British bats and their roosts are protected by law

  • A brown long-eared bat can hear a ladybird walking on a leaf

  • Bats are indicative of a healthy, diverse environment

  • A single pipistrelle can eat 3,000 tiny insects in just one night

  • Bats are the only mammal that can fly

  • Bats are gentle, clean and sociable animals

  • All of the 17 breeding species in the UK feed on insects

  • Bats can see but use their ears to hunt in the dark using echolocation

  • With wings folded a tiny pipistrelle could fit into a matchbox

  • Bats only have one baby each year, called a pup

  • Bats don’t make nests or chew wires when roosting in buildings

I didn’t know much about bats, but I did know some of the above. I didn’t realise that they fly all night either, which makes them truly fascinating. We recently joined a ‘bat walk’ organised by our local council at one of their parks, which was just as fascinating.

A fuzzy picture of the echolocator provided for our council organised bat walk

It was great to see so many people of all ages equipped with the provided echolocators (shown in the fuzzy picture above) keen to learn more, wandering around the park at dusk looking out and hoping to spot at least one or two of bats as they emerged for the evening.

From this walk we learnt that the bats in our gardens are most likely the tiny common pippistrelle, whose characteristics are the fast and jerky movements, but even so I’m pretty sure we’ll still be calling them Boris!

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was quite a show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did the show.

Where there's water, there's life

* I was invited to this year’s Gardeners’ World Live and provided with a pair of tickets to the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

This garden, designed by Rachel Bailey, celebrates 30 years of the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) which pretty much does what it says on the tin, and also sponsors the APL Avenue at the Gardeners’ World Shows. The garden highlights the vital connection between water, plants, people and nature and includes innovative design techniques that slow down the water’s flow ensuring it is conserved and used effectively in garden landscapes.

Looking across the boardwalk and planting to the blue gazebo and seating area

The blue gazebo structure is clearly one of the most eye catching elements of the design, and I guess the blue reflects the garden’s water theme. Then there’s the boardwalk, also used near water and/or in damp areas which again reinforces that water connection.

The boardwalk extends out through the planting to an upright wooden sculpture
The wooden posts are repeated through the garden and also act as bug hotels with holes drilled into the wood

I’m a big fan of the planting, both close up and from a distance it’s really effective - and when you’re close up you can see the pools of water emerging from the boardwalk and can easily imagine how those gravelled areas could hold more water as and when required.

The other thing I’m a fan of in this garden are the chairs with their striking design, which both stands out and fades into the background. They look pretty comfortable too.

Informal and full planting with yellow and blue/purple flowers
The corner of the boardwalk provides the perfect spot to display the two crystal goblet awards

This was a great garden, and while I don’t think it’s something I’d replicate in my own garden it is one that I can admire. I wasn’t the only one to think so as this was awarded a Platinum award and also Best in Show - the photo above proudly shows off their crystal goblets for those awards.

Subtle, understated but quietly proud - I think that sums up the whole garden to be honest.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was quite a show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did the show.