My favourite Chelsea Gardens 2017

I always watch the BBC coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show, but have never actually visited the show.  I think that when I see the crowds, it does put me off.  The TV coverage always gives a much more detailed view of the gardens too, although it doesn't give the whole atmosphere that being there would.  The RHS Chelsea Flower Show website is a great resource and  that is where all these photos have come from.  Thank you to them!
So, onward to a round up of my favourite gardens - a completely biased view, naturally. Above is the 500 years of Covent Garden by Lee Bestall, which got a silver medal.  I like the planting and the zingy blue/green of the metalwork reproduced in the planters.

 The Morgan Stanley Garden by Chris Beardshaw was given a silver gilt medal (I think it should have been a gold).  Again the planting is beautiful and the exuberance represents Mozart's music, whereas the shady area in the right of the picture represents Bach (I think).

 The Linklaters Garden for Maggies by Darren Hawkes also has some lovely vibrant planting (there is a theme here...) and won a gold.

 The Zoe Ball Listening Garden by James Alexander Sinclair offers a contrast to all the vibrant colours, with peace and shade.  The three water features all have different ripple patterns which give different sounds and apparently, if you put your foot on the gravel at the front of the garden, you can feel vibrations.

My favourite garden is the Anneka Rice Colour Cutting Garden by Sarah Raven.  Just look at those colours!  

 I would love to have a garden like this myself.

 It is filled with annuals and I particularly like the formal paths with the floofy (my word for exuberant and effervescent) planting.

More stunning planting with cooler colours in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Centenary Garden by David Domoney which got a silver medal.  I really like the railings, made to represent the 154 countries in which the War Graves Commission operate.  If you have ever visited one of their cemeteries, you'll know how beautifully they are arranged, planted and cared for.

 The Poetry Lovers' Garden was given a silver medal and was designed by Fiona Cadwallader.  Lovely dry stone walls encase the garden, with a shady seating area and rippling water feature - just the place to sit and read.

Finally, I had to include the World Horse Welfare Garden by Adam Woolcott and Jonathan Smith . The horse sculpture made from donated horseshoes, including one from one of the Queen's horses, is amazing.  The left side of the garden shows an uninviting area for horses, with a falling apart stable and some poisonous to horses plants, such as ragwort and on the right, the horse is free, in a field. 

From my choices, I think I am a romantic gardener, in the cottage garden style and that is the way I garden at home.  Hard edges, angles and minimalist planting is just not appealing to me.  

The gardens at Chelsea always show a great attention to detail and demonstrate a  wonderful celebration of gardening.

Visit to Barnsdale Gardens

 I was very lucky to visit Barnsdale Gardens on Sunday, with my friends Katy and Alison.   Geoff Hamilton, the TV gardener, created the gardens and they featured on Gardeners' World for many years, until Geoff's untimely death, twenty years ago.  He was a huge inspiration to me in my gardening and it was through watching him that I thought I might be able to grow things too.
It had been so wet, we wondered whether we would be able to go, and the weather forecast wasn't that great, but in the event, the heavens smiled on us and we only had a couple of showers.  The gardens are about an hour or so away, but I don't manage to visit as often as I would like (I hadn't visited since 2013), so this was a treat.  Thanks to the recent rain, the whole place was green and verdant and full of birdsong.  It was really quite magical.  Also, due to the rain, there weren't that many visitors, so we almost had the place to ourselves.  Above is a lovely wisteria.

 This is one of my favourite gardens, the 'Country Garden', which has some beautiful birch trees and shade loving plants which give a woodland feeling as you walk through.

 The Town Paradise Garden has really matured and was full of lush growth...

 ...as was the Country Paradise Garden.  Hardy geraniums featured in most of the gardens.

 I was fascinated by the structure of this tree (I haven't a clue what it is).  It was quite spiky. (Edited to add: it is a young monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) - thanks to Amy for this).

 Looking across at the wildflower meadow from the Artisan's Cottage Garden.

 I have always liked this water feature, made from an old copper water tank, in the Recycled Garden.

 A little sparrow was enjoying a bath too.

 The Hosta garden displayed a wide range of green.  We noticed that some of the hostas were un-nibbled by snails, but others were rather holey - we decided this was all to do with the toughness of the leaves.

 The light shining through the leaves of the smoke bush caught my eye...

 ...as did this combination of planting, which contrasted so well and looked very vibrant.

 I liked the pastel mix of the Nigella or Love-in-a-mist.

Dan Pearson's design for this 'Cottage Garden' always looks inviting.  It has fruit trees amongst the roses and other perennials, and a small square box maze.  When the roses on the arches are in flower, they look and smell amazing - a previous post showing them in flower is here.

 I know that Alchemilla Mollis can be invasive, but when it has been rained on and the water droplets collect like mercury on the leaves, it can be forgiven.

 We all liked the Herb Garden with its mix of medicinal and culinary plants.

This was the view when we had a cup of tea and were joined by a robin, looking for some crumbs (which Alison gave him, of course!)  It was so peaceful, listening to the birds, looking at the plants and a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Open Gardens (tea and cake)

 It was an Open Gardens day at a village not far away from us, so we made the most of the sunny weather and headed off.  I love having the chance to be nosey and peek into other peoples' gardens.  However, it does make me wish I had a bigger garden!  Here are just a few of the highlights.  The first garden, above, had lots of areas, and some beautiful cottage garden planting.  They were trying to be as eco-friendly as they could, with compost from the local council, a wormery, compost bins, mulches round the veg plot and all beautifully laid out.  A lot of time and effort had gone into all the gardens, but this one was especially impressive.

 This one was an artist's garden, with lovely planting and interesting sculptures dotted about.  I loved walking down the path through the blue spires of delphiniums.

 One of my favourite gardens had this fantastic display of peonies, along the side of the house.  The owner was so welcoming and had free plants (yes, free!), although we did give a contribution for the local church funds. I got a lovely dark leaved hardy geranium.

 The same lady had this rich, jewel coloured astrantia in her front garden.  Lucky her!  Her garden went all around the house and the front was lovely herbaceous plants.  The back garden was gravelled, but had a huge number of interesting plants in pots and in the gravel.

 This was part of the front garden with romantic, feminine planting.

 This aquilegia was about three feet tall  - the colours were just beautiful.

This garden was full of interesting areas too and I particularly liked the river of mexican daisies (erigeron) which had seeded in the paving.
Once we had looked round the nine gardens, all of which were lovely and were different sizes and styles, we went to the church for tea and cake (there just has to be cake!).  Coffee and walnut for my sister-in-law and Victoria sandwich for me.  A perfect finish to a lovely couple of hours - and the weather stayed fine all the time we were out!

Tatton Park Flower Show (part one)

This was my first visit to Tatton park, which is situated just near Knutsford in Cheshire.  (I think Knutsford was the original inspiration for Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, although we didn't actually see much of Knutsford itself).  We had a very scenic drive across the Peak District and really enjoyed the landscape, although the journey took us 2 and a half hours - if we had used the motorways, it would have been quicker, but we wouldn't have seen the landscape.  I went with two friends (Katy and Alison) who I used to work with and my sister-in-law (Kathryn), all keen gardeners.   Above is the Mornflake garden which had lovely dry stone walls and lots of movement from the grasses.  I think it won best in show for its category, which was not surprising.

 I think that Tatton has a more 'country fair' feel than Gardeners' World Live in Birmingham.  It was much more open and much less frenetic.  There was a huge amount to see and even though we thought we'd managed to see everything, when I watched the TV coverage, there were gardens they focused on that we missed. 
The garden above had a great shot of colour and I was particularly taken by the sculpture/wildlife home wall at the end.

I couldn't resist a close up of it.

 This garden in the 'Orchestra' section was right up my street. I can't escape the inevitable - the traditional English Cottage garden is the style that appeals to me most.  Roses, clematis, cottage garden perennials, box hedging and somewhere to sit, which this garden 'Air on a Green String' gave an impression of, albeit a slightly grander one - more like a country house garden.

 Another of the 'Orchestra' gardens and a complete contrast.  Called 'Strings', it was clever and sophisticated, with restrained planting that worked very well to convey the movement of the string vibration.

 Here it is from the side, showing the undulating pattern made by the grass.

 The Suffragettes' garden was also clever,  with references to chaining to the railings, setting post boxes on fire and broken windows, but with some lovely pastel planting in the left corner.  The motto of the Suffragettes was on the wall - Dignity, Purity, Hope.

 This garden aimed to give a vision of the Peak District through the year, incorporating the changing colours and with a lovely bit of dry stone walling at the back.  It also won an award.

 This shade garden was beautifully planted and had a lovely granite block which echoed the box bushes and a simple but elegant bench.

I liked the blocks of strong colour provided by the cube seats in this garden, and the areas of different colours of planting - pale purples and blues, whites, greens and yellows with reds and deep purples at the back.
More in my next post...

Open gardens

I went to an Open Gardens on Saturday, to Navenby, near Lincoln. I love looking at other people's gardens - for ideas, to be nosey and to discover new planting combinations and new plants. Below was my favourite garden, tucked away but with lots of cottage garden plants. I particularly liked the different areas in the garden and the fact that you couldn't see everything at once.

This clematis was in the same garden and was amazing, both for its colour and number of flowers. It was happily growing up an apple tree.

This was the view across the fields (plus sheep) and a lovely old stone wall encrusted with moss. The weather was reasonable but my hands got cold. There were 9 different gardens, ranging from acres to back yards, but all with dedicated gardeners tending them. The tea and cakes in the church hall were very welcome, and the cakes themselves were absolutely delicious. A great way to spend a Saturday!

Speaking of Chelsea...

Although I didn't visit the Chelsea Flower Show, I have been enjoying the BBC coverage and I thought I would share some of my favourite gardens with you. The Bee Friendly garden incorporated some lovely lilac and purple planting, and the ubiquitous alliums, of course!

Music of the Moors was a tranquil space and the willow window tracery worked particularly well. The designer said it was supposed to be as though you were looking out of a church window onto the moors. The planting was very evocative - no wonder it won best small garden category.

My absolute favourite was the one above, the M and G garden. I am just a traditional cottage gardener at heart and the romantic planting with the oak pergola and building really appealed to me.

The Rhubarb and Custard garden made me smile. It was good to see a garden with a sense of humour! It won the RHS viewers vote for best small garden, so must have appealed to others too. The spoon seat is especially gorgeous.

Christian before Dior was another designed cottage garden, albeit a little more formal. Although I did like aspects of some of the more contemporary gardens, I'm just a traditionalist at heart.