Chelsea: My Favourite Show Garden


If you read my Anticipating Chelsea post, I expect you're not surprised that Future Nature was my favourite show garden. It doesn't look much like a conventional garden does it? But it's much more than just a garden: it's packed with lots of research (15 years worth) and ideas on how to tackle our really big gardening issues like climate change, coping with periods of flash flooding and drought, gardening for wildlife etc. etc.

Whilst the garden's rectangular in shape, within that there's a spiral design which deals with water entering the garden just like it drains out of your bath's plughole. At the top of the garden are areas representing green rooves which soak up the rainfall like a sponge, below that are planters and water pools which take up any runoff from the roof. Thus periods of intense rainfall can be coped with without overloading our drains and the water can be stored away to be used during times of drought. Everywhere there's a low maintenance, naturalistic planting of both perennials and wildflower meadows plus plenty of insect towers and bug boxes providing both food and shelter for the garden's insect life. Whilst it's not a conventional garden, the design and detail were incredible and there was lots of ideas to take away for both my own garden and public planting. I saw something completely different each time I looked at it.

Then came the real icing on the cake. I've come across Dr. Nigel Dunnett's (pictured) work whilst researching public planting, so I was very keen to talk to him about how I can lobby my council to adopt some of his ideas. I posed my question and got invited to onto the garden to sit and have a long chat. Can you imagine how excited I was about that! That's not me in the picture BTW, but my predecessor on the garden. H didn't have her camera with her so didn't record my top Chelsea highlight. Dr. Dunnett agreed it's hard work and most councils don't really 'get it' until they see his work for real. There's a seminar at Sheffield University on 5th August that I and anyone from my council (if I can persuade anyone to come) are most welcome to attend. Rest assured I'll be there at least.

Another garden deserving a more detailed mention is Eden Project's The Key. This garden looked a mess on paper, but the real thing was much better. What made this garden so special was the collaboration between so many organisations and people to make this garden happen. Homeless people and prisoners were involved in the design, growing and build of this garden which represents a journey from a bleak place to a more tranquil sanctuary. There's 10,000 plants, so you can imagine how many people it took for the grow your own aspect of the garden alone. I seriously covet the tomato tower in the vegetable garden. Several of the ex-prisoners and homeless were on hand to talk about the garden and their involvement which was very moving and another special feature of this garden. It was great to see them chatting (and being listened to for once) with 'very nice people'* - I wonder who benefited most from the exchange?

* = I'm trying not to sound patronising here and failing dismally, but it really was like class barriers were being breached in a big way simply through a shared interest in gardening. It was a very open and honest exchange and I loved it.

BTW did you notice the mention of public planting on the BBC's Chelsea coverage on Thursday? It turns out the Cancer Research UK garden is inspired by the fantastic Portuguese pavement designs and plantings in Rio de Janeiro. In addition, Joe Swift suggested the Perfume Garden would be perfect for public planting, possibly a roundabout. I'm not quite sure what the designers of such a meticulously researched garden would make of that suggestion, but I for one am pleased that the need for better public planting was recognised on national TV, no matter how briefly :)

Comments

  1. Tatyana@MySecretGarden23 May 2009 at 16:11

    Very interesting! I think I would love those gardens, too.
    P.S. Don't you hate it when there is no camera exactly when you need it the most?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Monica the Garden Faerie23 May 2009 at 19:38

    Your reports make me feel like I'm there! I love both the Key and Future Nature gardens are really cool. I love that tall bee home/sculpture thingie. Unfortunately the videos are "not available in my area." ITV also locks out their videos for US web visitors. I don't know why. Oh well!

    ReplyDelete
  3. easygardener23 May 2009 at 20:59

    I enjoyed Chelsea this year. I thought the Future Nature tower was a work of art as were the various filled boxes on poles! The vegetable garden in the Key was lovely too. Can't help but wonder if the various helpers are feeling a bit let down now the project is finished. I would like to think there was some long term benefit.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Aunt Debbi/kurts mom24 May 2009 at 04:40

    Someday when the boys are grown and taking care of themselves, I hope to see it for myself.

    ReplyDelete
  5. our friend Ben24 May 2009 at 13:09

    Thanks for explaining Future Nature, VP! I'd never seen anything like the insect tower and was bemused when I saw some photos on another blog. Way cool! Ditto for The Key. I wish all prisoners and homeless people could be involved in community gardening and have a chance to have mutually respectful interactions with other gardeners over a shared passion.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen24 May 2009 at 16:48

    I loved Future Nature too, from what I could see of it on telly, so I'm not surprised that you liked it so much. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Arabella Sock24 May 2009 at 19:17

    I agree VP Future Nature was a lovely garden - full of colour and interest and I would have thought that kids would love it too. It was the one that stood out as being quite different apart from the Quilted Velvet garden which I thought was quite interesting but you couldn't live with it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. VP24 May 2009 at 20:37

    Tatyana - I was cursing all the time I was in the garden!

    Monica - it's a shame that happens, but at least I can give you something of what it was like. The insect tower's just fab isn't it? Puts mine to shame!

    EG - I believe some of them have acquired qualifications/jobs along the way so there's been a lot of benefit from this garden. That's why it's so special. I enjoyed your report on your visit :)

    Deb - I'd love it if you did :)

    OFB - I could have said a whole lot more about these gardens, but I hope I've done them justice with my short summaries!

    Yolanda - I'm seeing new stuff in there just from looking at my photos!

    Arabella - a great garden and a challenging one as there's a lot there which people wouldn't normally associate as a garden, but I think we'll have to going forward. I like how the accompanying literature has practical solutions for where each component might be used. And the garden's going back to Sheffield afterwards which is fantastic. As for Quilted Velvet, you could see elements of the Hampton Court conceptual gardens that the designer's done couldn't you? I'm still making my mind up about it!

    ReplyDelete

New comments are not allowed.

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter,
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi
Read more