International Garden Photographer of the Year


Yesterday Threadspider and I wended our way to Lacock Abbey to view the International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY*) exhibition currently housed in its grounds until 18th April. I thought you'd particularly like to see the above picture of the award winning 43 gardeners' hands by Paul Debois. James blogged about his sitting for this novel portrait a while ago and amongst the other great and the good of our UK gardening world, you'll find the likes of Plant Mad Nige, EmmaT (twice - many congratulations on the birth of your son Emma!) and Cleve.

Like last year's show the pictures snake through the Botanic Garden, where Fox Talbot grew some of the specimens he used for his book, Pencil of Nature. Lacock is a particularly apt location for this exhibition because it's where 175 years ago he developed the world's first photograph using the positive/negative image technique . With the advent of digital cameras this may seem an outmoded form of photography these days, but we owe a hell of a lot to Fox Talbot's inventiveness.


We also took time to walk around the grounds of the Abbey. The exhibition was accompanied by the magnificent song of the Song Thrush, whilst here we were directly underneath a quite large and raucous rookery. The woodland was in an in between stage: we were too early for most of the daffodils and too late for the snowdrops and crocus, with the exception of this sheet of blue we found in a cooler part of the woodland. There were also signs of wild garlic and fritillaries to come.

Over the winter many of the paths through this part of the garden have been relaid with fresh hoggin, so fresh it still needed our steps and those of many more to come and tamp it down into a firm walkway. We soon realised we were following in the tracks of a deer who must have passed that way only that morning.

After coffee and cake in the local tearoom, we had a final bit of excitement on the way home. The busy A350 just by our local garden centre has a horse crossing instead of a pedestrian one. I've waited years to take this albeit blurry, rainy picture of a horse + rider waiting to cross over the road. The red light you can see is an outline of a horse rather than the usual little man. You'll be pleased to know I wasn't driving at the time, it was Threadspider :)

* = does anyone else think I Go Potty when they see the IGPOTY acronym?

Comments

  1. Threadspider26 March 2010 at 17:54

    Yay-the horse crossing! Sorry I couldn't slow down any more-I too have always wanted to see a horse using it.
    The song thrush recording I made is quite clear although the beginning section is marred by the wind blowing across the microphone. Pity, because it was an especially rich song. A grand day out VP. Cracking crocuses.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gail26 March 2010 at 17:56

    Hoggin is just what I need for my paths! I wonder what the US version would be? I am dashing over to google to listen to a Song Thrush! gail

    ReplyDelete
  3. Noel Morata26 March 2010 at 19:16

    aloha,

    this looks like it is a fantastic exhibit...i wonder how they protected the photographs in the outdoors, where they laminated?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Elizabeth Musgrave26 March 2010 at 22:00

    Looks superb. I love the hands.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ArtShades26 March 2010 at 22:19

    I stumbled across the IGoPotty exhibition whilst visiting Kew last year - I loved the way they displayed the photos within the gardens, something rather wonderful about viewing fabulous photographs outdoors. Had no idea it toured.

    ReplyDelete
  6. HappyMouffetard27 March 2010 at 11:31

    Really interesting, VP. I'm off to Google more about Fox Talbot.

    ReplyDelete
  7. petoskystone27 March 2010 at 13:47

    my fave photo was latham's Polytrichum Mounds!
    mainly because they're kind of creepy in a bad sci-fi/horror flick involving mutant fleash-eating worms sort of way..& i just liked the colors of greens.

    ReplyDelete
  8. HappyMouffetard28 March 2010 at 13:01

    I've just noticed that whenever I initially look at this post, my brain interprets the hands as butterflies.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The bike shed28 March 2010 at 21:17

    I went to this exhibition - twice! And it was good to see it so busy the other Sunday when there was 'free entry' day.

    Isn't it good to have somewhere like Lacock on the doorstep: I often go there just to eat my lunch!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Unknown28 March 2010 at 23:05

    I too thought the first photo was of butterflies until I blew it up. Oops. LOVE the horse crossing signal. I have signs put up on the road before our house to indicate horse and rider, and while I don't know if they work or not for others, they certainly do when I see them when I'm out driving elsewhere.
    I'm so envious of everyone going to the Malvern meet, mostly because I would so much like to meet YOU, M, and tour around country and gardens like you, RO, and others show on your blogs. Sigh. Maybe next year...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ms B29 March 2010 at 08:27

    As you know I saw & enjoyed the exhibition when it was at Kew.

    As for the horse crossing, they have recently built one across the busy A3 very near to one of the entrances which you can only exit through from Richmond Park. I am looking forward to seeing a/some horses use it! Do they need special training?

    ReplyDelete
  12. timmatcham29 March 2010 at 21:30

    looking forward to visiting the show before it closes - just seems to be so much to do at the moment!

    ReplyDelete
  13. VP2 April 2010 at 12:06

    Hi everyone - glad you enjoyed this snippet from the exhibition. It's well worth a visit and like Mark I hope to go again before it closes.

    Yes HM and Jodi, those hnds do look like butterflies don't they? I handn't noticed that before.

    Noel - aloha and welcome :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. VP2 April 2010 at 12:08

    Jodi - we'd all love to meet you too and so many others across the pond. I'm hoping we'll show you we had such a good time, you won't be able to resist.

    And it all started with me joking to Gail about having an exchange visit, so you never know just who might end up crossing over the pond in the other direction!

    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

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

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

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

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