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.

Nick Bailey's Plant-Based Garden

* 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.

I said in my highlights post from the show that I was looking forward to seeing how Nick Bailey would incorporate the #MakeAMetre matter initiative into his garden, and how successful it was and today I’m sharing some of the many pictures I took of the garden.

Dense prairie style planting in the foreground with the seating area in the background
Three instances of the dark roof shaped structure repeating through the garden among the raised beds

The garden features a cluster of Douglas fir buildings and structures in the style of a traditional homestead, and it was the repeating shapes of the frames that made the garden such a success for me. They brought height to the space and their bold charred wood certainly brought impact.

The narrow bricked path forming a 'central corridor' through the garden's planting, ponds and seating areas

The buildings included a Burnt-Out Barn with grape vines overhead and dining below, the Brassicarium for protection for edibles, and the Roofed Barn seating area (below) which overlooked the ponds and a meadow-matrix perennial grass planting. And if you look closely there’s patchwork throws over the chairs too.

The open but covered seating area with cosy chairs, patchwork throws and a game of chess
Lush green planting growing alongside one of the buildings softening its shape

Long term readers will know that I like a structured and ordered veg plot, but never have I heard of a Brassicarium, and I wish I had - isn’t it a great word?

The brassicarium complete with kale and cabbages
The vegetable raised beds but with some plants - such as a bronze fennel - growing in the path

I liked that the planting was at different levels, and even the raised beds varied in height which I think helped this garden feel more like an established garden. The other thing that was a nice touch was the plants that had ‘crept’ over their borders softening the paths.

Even the sage that seemingly had ‘escaped’ the show garden’s boundaries.

An escaped purple sage growing under the show garden's rope border

I was also a fan of the compost bins, though I’m not sure I’d have placed them this close to the dining area in a real life garden, but the open and stackable concept was good. So much so that I became a little obsessed with how they were built.

Two open compost bins made from squares of wood, with the dining area behind
Down at ground level looking at the construction of the compost bins

Looking closely and by poking a finger in the gap it seems they were simply stacked on top of each other. And that dark wood was newly charred as my grubby finger attested to!

They definitely gave me food for thought for my own garden, though they may be over engineered for what I need, but they do show that compost bins don’t need to be the ugly plastic daleks!

The view across the vegetable raised beds - from the compost bins

I loved this garden, and it wasn’t just the structures for me. The concept of one square metre, the dense planting, mixing edibles with flowers, the informality of it all made it a great space, and I hope it has a longer term home - it deserves it.

What do you think?

* 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.

Gardening in 2050?

* 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.

As I stepped into the shed, which was the entrance to this garden, I knew I was going to like it. They say first impressions count, and this to do list (who doesn’t love a list?!) and mix of vintage items, along with the humour had me hooked. Entering through a shed was definitely a point of difference so hats off to the garden’s designer Vivien Mosely, and of course to The Botanical Gardener who brought the design to life.

A handwritten to do list on a blackboard
Black walls in the shed entrance to the garden with vintage tools and pots hanging on the wall/shelves
Another view - straight on - of the vintage shelving tools & pots

The garden offers a glimpse into the future, so the blurb said.

It’s set in 25 years time, where water resources are limited and the landscape is parched. Which unfortunately may be a realistic outlook if this summer and it’s four heatwaves (so far) are anything to go by, unless we get better at capturing water, as there was certainly plenty of it about in the first few months of the year.

But also, 2050 is 25 years away - surely 2050 is in a future space age, not within actual reach. We can all remember 25 years in the past (well, if we’re old enough to) and often it’s forty years ago that feels like it was much closer.

But anyway back to the garden.

An old municipal type water fountain filled with succulents, with the seating area beyond

2050 is a garden that invites visitors to consider how gardening will change, and what plant species we can plant in our gardens today that will also thrive in the future. And my own increasing addiction to succulents isn’t lost on me either, here they’re used in a stunning and dramatic way to replace the ‘lost’ water.

A closer look at the bulbs and succulent planting in the fountain
Looking across the floaty planting of grasses to the seating area

By using derelict artefacts and features evoking a sense of nostalgia the garden reminds us that we don’t miss the water until the well runs dry, but also that we can create something beautiful as we adapt to the changing climate.

There’s definitely something to think about there, and how we adapt our planting now, whether we do that consciously, or sub-consciously as the garden centres change their offering looking towards the longer-term.

And this garden shows, it can still be beautiful and attractive. I’m not one for a water feature in the garden, but a fountain of succulents, now that would be something else wouldn’t it?

The slightly sunken seating area, edged with dark bricks and surrounded by planting including splurge and red hot pokers
Looking more closely at the planting around the seating area, topped with gravel

While at the show I was keen to eye up seating areas, especially those that might be on gravel. And this one delivered all of that. It’s something I’d been thinking about for our garden here - though I’m not sure if the gravel would work in reality. It’d be like walking across lego once you’d kicked back and kicked off your flip flops wouldn’t it?

Stepping back to admire the sunken seated area, a potential firepit and the planting

I like the architectural detail around the sunken seating area, and spent quite a while thinking if a sunken area could work in our garden. Then I realised it would probably annoy me, and make me feel constrained, and that along with the prospect of finding much builder’s rubble consigned the idea for our garden to history!

But it doesn’t make me love this garden any less, what do you think?

* 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.