Dark side of the bloom

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

This is a garden for music lovers, and was designed by Antony Massie who admitted to once being ‘a moody teenager with smudged eyeliner, a guitar in hard and dreams of becoming a global rock star, not a gardener.” He also said that his 18 year old self on hearing that he’d fall in love with plants would probably turn up the volume, and laugh.

But his younger self’s loss is our gain as this garden is fabulous, using deep purples and moody foliage (and at least one of those was another band wasn’t it?) and a winding path in the shape of a bass clef are more nods to the music the designer loves.

His garden reimagines the pace he might have designed as an aspiring rock star - dark, dramatic and full of creative energy. Enjoy!

Isn’t it a delightful space?

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

From Sewing to Sowing

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

This is the perfect name for a garden isn’t it? I think the designer Annabel Davies should win a prize solely for that, and I’m sure she’s very happy with the Gold award that the judges gave her, but even so - or should that be sew?

But anyway, the garden reflects Annabel’s journey from sewing film costumes to gardening after she discovered a love of growing flowers and vegetables in 2020, which sounds like the perfect lockdown distraction too. And I think I’d love to see her costume designs if this is what her garden’s look like, don’t you agree?

But I digress, the garden is inspired by Arts & Crafts gardens and combines ornamental and productive planting - so no doubt another reason why it scored so highly for me. The show notes said that the garden uses a ‘varied textures of flowers and vegetables much like fabrics bring life to a costume design’.

And looking at this garden again a month or two after the show, that totally makes sense - the dense planting (another favourite of mine) meshing together to form the fabric of the garden.

All the while the plants are struggling to be contained by the raised beds and so spill over the edges with abundance.

It really is a garden, with planting that’s full of joy. Sigh.

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

The Mill Ruins

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

In a strange quirk of fate I’m back today talking about mills. Yesterday it was sculptural woven tapestries inspired by a textile mill in West Yorkshire, and today it’s a garden inspired by the remnants of Lancashire’s historic mills. I’d like to say I planned it this way, but I didn’t - though I wish I had!

This garden on the APL Avenue was the first garden we saw at this year’s show, and it was a very good place to start. The garden, designed by 3DG explores a quiet moment where industry gives way to nature.

As I previously said it’s inspired by the remnants of Lancashire’s historic mills, reclaimed brick, Corten steel and weathered oak echo the fragments left behind as the landscapes regenerate.

The Corten steel arch is definitely the eye catching entrance a show garden could hope for, but this garden is so much more than that. The path winds around layered planting and a shallow reflective pool, plus spotting those yellow red hot pokers in my first garden of the show is always going to be a win for me.

The rain chain introduced sound, and was a subtle nod to the water than once powered the mills.

The majority of planting in this garden is native to the UK, and selected for its biodiversity and to soften the architectural forms. And while we might not all have these architectural elements in our gardens, unless we’ve added them of course, we can take inspiration from the planting.

The Mill Ruins is a garden about renewal, where structure fades, and nature quietly takes back control - and I love that for it, and I love this garden. I knew when I saw this garden that it was going to be a good show, and it certainly was.

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