Giant vegetables!

One of my favourite agricultural shows is in Clutton in August. Here are a couple of snaps.

And a rather superb tractor in the tractor display......

New years resolutions

1) Be calm and serene while getting everyone out the house in the morning

2) Update blog more regularly than bi-annually

3) Sort out my own garden

Watch this space......... I have a couple of updates to do straight away!

What was hot at Chelsea?

Just back from a lovely week in Dorset, and thought you may want to share my Chelsea snaps, (a week after the event). Since then the poor camera has suffered a terrible accident, culminating in it bouncing on the A35, so enjoy the camera's swansong.

Had an absolute ball, and drew lots of inspiration, although it will be a brave client who commissions a giant floral temple, complete with elephants and dragons!

This year has been a tricky year for the nurseries, as it has been the driest spring since 1893, and the sunniest since 1929. Good news for the rose growers such as David Austin and Harkeness Roses, who had (as ever) fabulous stands, but hats off to Walker's Bulbs, who had a glorious display of daffodils.

When you see such fab specimens, it is hard not to be inspired. I overheard several conversations along the lines of 'when we get home, we could put another border along the garage...' or 'ooh, do you think we could squeeze a cornus in by the plum tree?' (OK, that one was me).

There were many inspirational gardens and planting combinations. As ever, my favourite nurseries in the floral marquee had fantastic stands. I spend ages scribbling by the Hilliers stand, with the fantastic planting combinations, perfect specimens and lovely helpful people manning the stand. This year I particularly liked the citrus foliage with soft yellow floral splashes, moving into the odd maroon foliage specimen. The stand had the feel of a woodland glade, moving through soft pinks and onto lots of foliage with pale purples. In particular, I loved Rosa 'Harlow Carr' - quite a lax growth, small pink flowers across the whole summer with an absolutely knockout scent.



Chelsea was a joy this year. We went on members day on the Wednesday, which was stunningly hot, bringing out the best in the gardens, particularly the Monaco garden, designed by Sarah Eberle. Probably something to do with the fabulous azure pool, totally inviting, with a glass surround, inviting sun loungers and wooden deck .......... The detailing is fantastic, with the water chute emerging into the pool from the walkway, the planting which is so evocative of the Mediterranean, with the tangerine coloured Diascias and Geums sitting against the glaucous Senecios.

The most talked about garden was, without a doubt, Diarmuid Garvin's Irish Sky Garden. The coverage on TV was fantastic - a flying pod, overlooking a gorgeous garden of greens and dark reflective pools. The greens were amazing - box, hornbeam, miscanthus sinensis, lavenders and photinias. Unfortunately, you couldn't really see into the garden from the roped off areas we mere mortals were allowed to view from! I think the planting looked stunning, and I really wanted to explore all the different areas which I could see tantalising glimpses of, but as a show garden I'm afraid it didn't really work for me, as you could not really see enough of it on the day. Never mind - I thought the parts I could see were gorgeous, and I shall enjoy the rest of it virtually.

One of my favourites was one of the smaller gardens, The Magistrates Garden by Kate Gould, which was built to celebrate 650 years of the Majistracy. It has strong evergreen structure, coupled with softer planting and a vertical green wall.

I love the planting, with the 'umbrella' plane trees, mirrored by box on the ground, the soft purples in the vertical wall echoed by rosa 'Justice of the Peace' and soft verbascums.

I also liked the use of materials, the slate, oak and glass. Old materials used in a clean and crisp modern way. The garden was designed to be on top of an urban car park, so all planting either has shallow roots, or is grown in containers, but this does not seem to have limited the design in any way.

Among the other gardens which are worth a mention is the B&Q garden by Laurie Chetwood and Patrick Collins. It featured a towering nine metre vertical garden for high rise living. B&Q are just starting to stock a 'vertical grow box' if you want to recreate the look.

Cleeve West designed the 'Best in Show', a garden which looks like it has self seeded and grown around ruins over time. I loved the planting in gravel which included flowering yellow parsnips, blood red dianthus, rosemary and red valerian. The soft planting is ideal for the more laid back gardener, as the beauty is in the loose, self seeding and drifting of the plants - as though they have been neglected slightly and allowed to spread over time. The hard elements give structure, such as the rendered walls, the terracotta columns, the beautiful stone walls and the gravel paths are all softened greatly by the muted palette and the softness of the plants.

So which garden would I like as my own? Can I choose two please? One entirely unpractical but utterly gorgeous, and one which I just adored. The first is the Tourism Malaysian Garden by David Cubero and James Wong - like a jungle with tropical plants and a cool seating area.

The other garden is the Homebase Cornish Memories Garden by Tom Hoblyn, with a cool, beautifully executed granite pool, together with the not very trendy, but lovely, planting of rhodedendrons, grasses and conifers. Utterly understated and utterly gorgeous.

Finally, a few snaps of the gardens in Ranelagh Gardens, as they are so cute...

Smug? Moi?

Having spent the best part of the day sorting out my neglected vegetable patch, I am now feeling smug. Bean canes are in, paths weeded, potatoes in, seedlings hatching and sprouting in the greenouse and the grass is mowed.

All I need to do now is the rest of the garden, (and the rest of the veg patch that I have omitted to photograph).

Accidental but beautiful

The beauty of gardens is that they evolve over time. Self seeding, growth, weathering and the seasons all affect the garden. I had to snap this lovely primrose growing under a step, so simple, but uplifting.

When planning a new planting scheme, it is the little touches, such as adding small plants to cracks and niches, which help a new scheme feel like it has been there forever.

Apples - which variety?

I have been rather busy with a great project in Devon. It is a farm which is to be adapted to provide a wildlife haven with meadows, orchards and tumbling beds of pollen and nectar rich plants. The old concrete yards and modern barns are going, and we are incorporating mature Oaks, Hawthorns alongside the new fruit trees. As it is about this time of year that bare root fruit trees should be planted, I thought I would post something...



Once the practical considerations, such as access, drainage, paths, seating etc. were in place, it was time to consider the meadows and orchards. The meadows take some consideration, which I may go into at a later date (if I ever find the time!), but I particularly enjoyed choosing the fruit trees for the orchard. In my own garden, most of the fruit trees are mature, and if I am honest, a little long in the tooth, so it was a real treat to be able to look at choosing some for a new orchard.


The first consideration was the pollination groups. This sounds a little complicated, and in most domestic gardens you need not worry, as there are often other fruit trees around to cross pollinate any fruit trees you plant. This garden is in the middle of farmland, and excluding a few crab apples in the hedges, there are not any pollinators for some distance, so I have included trees which will work together, plus a few crab apples around the garden for extra pollination opportunities. Essentially, most apple and pear trees need a nearby pollinator, which flowers at a similar time, in order for the blossom to turn into fruit. Some fruit trees are self-fertile - any fruit tree nursery will be able to help you out with your selection though.

The next thing was to consider what the apples were needed for. It is all very well to have several beautiful Bramleys in your garden, but if there is a year such as 2010, you will quickly tire of clearing up all the windfalls, and trying to offload them when your freezer is overloaded! There are a great variety of apple trees for culinary, dessert or cider making to choose from, so in order to whittle them down I also consider the following:

• purpose
• suitabililty to the site
• resistance to pests and disease (Cox are notoriously sickly)
• shelf life or storage
• yield (avoid a glut!)
• heritage (I try and use old westcountry varieties where possible)
• personal taste

There are dozens and dozens to choose from, and I plumped for an old favourite, the dual purpose 'Blenheim Orange', as it has a nice texture, and is suitable for eating and cooking; 'Beauty of Bath', a traditional westcountry eater, placed near to the path, and 'Hoary Morning' for the cooking variety - I am always tempted by the reliable 'Bramley's Seedling', but wanted to include a heritage variety, as a high yield was not needed.

This has set me off with a yearning to plant 'Pig Snout' and 'Hangy Down', although I may give 'Slack ma girdle' and 'Greasy Butcher' a miss......

More gadgets - apples peeled, cored and chopped

I had to get one of these apple peelers .. it has been a bumper year for apples, and if you want to use them all, the prep can be boring. Instead, I have willing helpers to turn the handle. Stewed apple anyone?