Discovering the Wallace Line Garden

March 12, 2026

* I was invited to the Gardeners’ World Live show 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.

One of the things I like about the gardens at Gardeners’ World is the history or thinking behind the garden which is often the inspiration for the designers. In this case Dave Hodson Gardens, the designer for the ‘Wallace Line’ garden took inspiration from the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who travelled the Malay Archipelago collecting plants for scientific research for this formal central canal garden with a twist.

Wallace developed a therory of Natural Selection at the same time as Charles Darwin and also hypothesised about an imaginary line between otherwise close islands which seemed to have completely different species of plants and animals.

The central pond with a red wiggly line showing the Wallace line, planting surrounds the pond in the foreground is a bench with a panama hat hung on its corner

This show garden recreates a representation of this line in the long pool and features a Jungle style planting on one side of the line and a a Savannah/Desert style on the other, using the plants shown in the image below.

The key plants for each side of the garden being held up for the photo

Now we know the Wallace Line is a result of Plate Tectonics bringing together areas on which Asian and Australasian species had developed separately, which just goes to show that quite often, or sometimes at least, we know what we know even if we can’t prove it at the time!

Looking from the jungle/exotic side of the garden across the pond to the Savannah/Desert side of the garden

It’s an interesting approach for me as it shows how you can combine two distinct styles of planting in one garden, and the information board also said that it makes the point “that once you have crossed the line from one eco system to another, there is no going back” which when you think about it, it really makes you think.

I was keen to see how the two distinct styles worked together, and I think they do, as I’m still toying with the idea of three zones for planting in our garden, those being cottage garden style, a productive garden and more exotic plants. I can visualise it in my mind’s eye, but I need to work out a way to get it down on paper in a way that MOH and potential garden designers can also understand.

The ongoing and ultimate challenge! I know where I need help with my idea is how the spaces connect with each other without looking like three different gardens! I’ll get there, and I just need to spend some either drawing it out, or cutting and sticking various pictures - and I think the latter will be quicker, even though it won’t look as nice.

Planting in the Jungle/Exotic side of the Wallace Line

Planting on the Savannah/Desert side of the Wallace line

But as this garden demonstrates, it is possible to have a cohesive garden with two distinct planting styles - it’s also given me hope that while my idea may not be the ‘norm’, it’s something worthwhile pursuing. Wish me luck!

* 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.

Shared garden spaces and connections

February 26, 2026

This garden, to give it it’s proper title - Family, Nature and Neighbours, had plenty to make me smile and plenty of inspiration too. It’s designed by David Blythe and won a Silver Merit award at the show and focuses on the connections we create with our families and neighbours through the garden spaces we share.

Looking at the open door of the tiny purple shed with the planted green roof

A side on view of the shed with the green roof and white guttering

David based his design around the shared boundary, using the low dry stone wall filled with planting pockets and a fence with vertical herb planters, along with a wildlife highway.

A section of dry stone wall planted with ferns in pockets - and space for a lego figure

herbs planted in white guttering hanging on a garden fence

I loved the idea of planting herbs in this way, though it’s not right for my current garden which is a shame.

The garden uses companion planting with pollinator friendly plants which helps to create a space where we can connect with nature using our senses - sight, sound, smell and taste are all covered in this small space, and it really does make for a beautiful border in every sense.

purple sage growing in among the cobbled paving area

But it was the wildlife highway that made me smile; the hedgehog house and the hedgehog shaped hole in the base of the fence. I couldn’t help but chuckle though when I peered into the hedgehog house, which of course has its very own green roof!

through the hedgehog shaped hole in the fence is a hedgehog house - also with a planted green roof

of course there's a hedgehog in the house - a lego one!

The hedgehog wasn’t the only addition to make me smile, perhaps your garden already has lego figures in, or perhaps they’ll be something you’ll build into your plans for this year, who knows.

Two lego figures enjoying hanging from the fence -one's even reading a book!

It’s great to be reminded of the connections we make with a space, and how we can share them - but most of all it’s great to be reminded that gardens are also places for fun.

A British Rainforest

February 12, 2026

Given the amount of rain we’ve had this year I thought it topical to share this garden designed by Chris North, as the title caught my eye as I was scrolling through my photos of the gardens that I still want to share from the 2025 show.

It was a fascinating garden, or Beautiful Border, and it was easy to see why it was awarded Platinum.

Chris said that his border ‘encapsulates a regenerating rainforest, underplanted with native British flora’ and aims to ‘raise awareness of these magical woodlands and the need to protect them.’

Temperate rainforests are globally important habitats found in mild climates with particularly high rainfall and humidity. They’re rarer than their tropical counterparts but are rich in biodiversity which supports populations of ferns, mosses and liverworts. Though the remaining rainforests in western Britain are threatened by deforestation and overgrazing.

Alongside the planting, I particularly liked the iron fern frond sculptures inserted into the space, and I would happily have left the show with a couple of sets of these had I seen them. I didn’t get a chance to speak to the designer either as both times we visited the border he was being held deep in conversation by someone else, and the same someone else, which was a little frustrating! We waited both times, but it was clear the conversation wasn’t ending anytime soon, so I left with just the pictures - and wondering how MOH could replicate these, I do like to give him a challenge!

I do love a fern or two, and it’s something we don’t have in our garden here. After having so many growing, and self propagating, in our previous garden now that I think of it it seems odd for us to have none at all. I’m sure though, that’s something I can correct!

These sculptural mushrooms also looked right at home in the garden, I’m not sure they’re something I’d go for, and if I did I’m not sure I could make them look this natural either. At least not in the timescales required for the build for a show.

Isn’t it an amazing space, and doesn’t it make you think differently about the lush green plants that are native to where we live?