* 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.
Be prepared for something entirely different - and a beautiful border which I absolutely love. I don’t think it’ll be something we recreate here, although the yellow red hot pokers could be a contender!
This garden designed by James Fenneberg takes the brief of ‘my garden escape’ to an entirely different level. He has designed a space which transports you through his choice of plants and materials. Agaves with their texture thorns feature prominently and symbolise ‘the sense of protection he wanted to create in his border’, and the results are stunning.
In addition James was also inspired by our ever changing climate to create a drought tolerant design which also features repurposed volcanic sand and rocks to create an ecological habitat for insects. And the weather on the day we visited the border couldn’t have underlined his message any more. We spent some time chatting with James and remarked how he was noticeably less flustered than some of the other garden designers who were watering the plants in their gardens so that they would look their best for the duration of the show.
Not so for James though, that’s definitely a design element that paid off - and one that I think we will all need to incorporate more and more into our garden spaces. Though if it means having sculptural plants like this, then it would be relatively easy to get on board with that wouldn’t it?
* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was as fabulous as ever!