BBC Gardeners' World Live - Beautiful Borders

One of the innovations at BBC Gardeners' World Live is the small border competition. It has been running for a number of years. Anyone can submit an entry, and the size of the borders means that it is a relatively cheap way of exhibiting at a national show. Also, the borders seem very popular with the visitors - their size means that the average gardener can envisage something similar in their own garden.

This year's theme was the 'Industrial Heritage of the West Midlands'.

Steel - Gold and best Beautiful Border (Kareena Gardiner)

The rusted steel and relatively muted colours of the cornflower and the bronze fennel looked sophisticated. The designer managed to fit in a small rill to denote the Birmingham to Wolverhampton canal. One side of the rill was planted with brighter foliage - I was surprised that I loved the small violas on this cooler side of the planting. They sat well with the silvery foliage.

A Glass Act - Luke and Cheryl Sibley (silver)

This seemed a vibrant take on a formal garden, with the glass mulch suggesting the water that would form the centrepiece of a formal water garden. Interesting use of glass, but I wasn't so keen on the colour mix - either between the glass and the plants or amongst the flowers themselves.

Back to Nature - Birmingham Metropolitan College (Silver)

A very strong link to the industrial background of the brief. Compared to the initial drawing, however, the planting was much sparser than I expected. A good example of how nature starts to reclaim even the bleakest industrial landscape.

The Teacup Garden - Georgina Chahed, Touch Landscapes (silver)

Lush planting in this garden, but it didn't grasp me as some other did. A mix of temperate and more tropical planting to link Wedgewood's Midlands potteries to tea-growing regions.

The Cut - Priory Park Level 2 Royal Horticultural Students (bronze)

Ah yes, Birmingham is oft described as the Venice of the North. Presumably by those who have never been to Venice, or possibly to Birmingham. Nevertheless, the team here endeavoured to show how the canal system is gradually being reclaimed by nature. The bees certainly seemed to be enjoying the Welsh poppies. Nice enough, but certainly been done many times before.

Foundry Garden - Amy Harper (silver gilt)

I took against this garden slightly, and I've been trying to think why. The design, planting and thought behind the border were all very good (as evidenced by the silver gilt). However, I didn't like the actual plants used. Plant snobbery, maybe? Perhaps, but whilst I loved some of the combinations, I was less keen on the yellowy Heuchera and marigold combination above. Luckily the judges work rather more objectively than me, and so it did well.

 

The Potteries - Nicola Oakey Garden Designs (gold)

 

 This was one border which wasn't afraid of getting some real height to it. The woven willows were beautiful and, listening to the designer, a real labour of love to complete. The planting was of delicate blues and whites, clearly reflecting the link to Wedgewood's china.

 

 

Forge Ahead - Lisa Niemy (gold)

 



 

Another beautifully planted border. Some great planting combinations, and the planting clearly linked to the narrative. The orange glass with black Ophiopogon grass was visually arresting, although not something most people would want in their own gardens. The Kniphofia/Euphorbia combination was one example of beautiful harmony within the planting scheme

The Black and the Green - Berkshire College of Agriculture (Silver)

 

The planting looked lovely against the rusted metal work in this garden. However,  my aversion to marigolds struck again, in the area where plants were supposed to be colonising an area of coal. This section looked a bit of a mish-mash of planting. The magenta Osteospermum against the darks straps of the Phormium and the rusted rails made up for this, though.

I must admit to a reason behind my great interest in this competition.I had every intention of submitting a design. I envisaged a border based on the heritage of Ditherington Flax Mill in Shrewsbury. It would have had rope features, and flax flowing through the garden. One side would have been planted to hint at the dereliction of the site, and the opposite side was to have been more structured, to hint at the redevelopment currently being undertaken there. BUT..... I didn't finish it. I got hung up on trying to draw a perfect perspective drawing, and ran out of time to submit. Having looked at the perspective drawings submitted, I could kick myself. A lesson learnt. To be honest, I couldn't have matched the work of the designers who did submit and got to make their designs come to life.

Maybe next year...

The cavern - BBC Gardeners' World Live floral marquee

It has been four years since I last went to BBCGWLive. If my memory serves me right, the floral 'marquee' (soulless big shed) was full of exhibits. The number of people inside meant you had to adopt a shuffle/side-step gait to get anywhere, and inevitably tripped up/got mown down by the pink crates on wheels.

Not so this year. I don't know if it was cost, cancellations, lack of interest, lack of demand, or what, but the cavern was resoundingly cavernous and pretty empty. I hope that those nurseries who did attend found it worth their while, as the displays were very good.

Pretty vacant

What did I like? Lots. Did I buy anything? Sadly no - I had a train trip home, and a stuffed Friday afternoon Arriva Wales train would not have been kind to any vegetation. Anyway, I'm trying to avoid impulse buys nowadays, in a vain attempt to make the garden slightly more harmonious. There were lots of ideas, and I took photos of plants and the nurseries supplying them, so I can follow up any plant-based longings that stand the test of time. It's too easy to fall in love with something at a show and come home to a lack of space in the sort of conditions where it would thrive. Perhaps I'm gradually learning as I get older.

As always, an amazing display of veg on the W. Robinson and Sons stand

 

I was sorely tempted by this Peony 'Flame' but was saved from trying to find somewhere in the garden where it wouldn't clash with everything, by the fact that you had to order it.

 

 

 

A beautiful display by Pennard Plants. Something a little different, and it made me wish I was in the

Mediterranean.

 

Something I wasn't so keen on. It's a variegated beech - Fagus sylvatica 'Franken'. It looks diseased, or at least heavily pooed upon by a poorly pigeon.

 

The box full of mini 'mouse' hostas was rather cute - an amuse gueule for a hungry slug.

I just loved the colours on this Iris hollandica 'Silvery Beauty'. I can't figure out why, but it reminds me of the long summers of my childhood.

 

 

Despite the 'banging music' as I believe it's called, I rather liked Primrose Hall Plants rave/chill out zone. It  looked as though some visitors were rather nervous of entering the rooms, but I thought it was great to see something a little different from the usual planting displays. The moss 'picture' was beautiful.

But it's always impossible to forget where you are. I've not been to Chelsea, but I would imagine that the Great Pavilion has rather more atmosphere than a shed at the NEC. I hope that business in the 'marquee' picks up for next year's show, because much as I complain when a plant marquee is heaving with people, it's far preferable to empty space.

 

Gardeners' World Live 2015 celebrity showdown

Thanks to Sally Nex, I was lucky enough to win a couple of free tickets to this year's Gardeners' World Live. I hadn't been since before Thomas was born, so it was a treat to go and have some time to wander around.

There'll no doubt be several blog post, but most of them will require some time and thought. In the mean time, I thought I'd pop up a few unflattering photos of celebrities I saw. One advantage of BBCGWLive is that you may well bump into Anne Swithinbank (I nearly did - we were both admiring the same stand in the plant marquee, and I suddenly realised who the lady in the marvellous hat was), but are unlikely to see Christopher Biggins, Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen or Ringo Starr. A real advantage, I'm sure you'll agree.

 

Like a scene out of 'Reservoir Dogs', but where they forgot to wear the matching suits.

 

 

James Alexander-Sinclair relaxes after talking thrust and droop.

No, missus, it was all about planting pots.

 

Anne Swithinbank (in aforementioned hat) practising her 'I'm a little teapot' stance.

 

 

Joe Swift, blissfully unaware of the 30 foot high doppelganger behind him.

 

 

The wonderful Carol Klein and Gardeners' World Magazine deputy editor David Hurrion have a face-off over who has the most floral attire. I think I've seen that suit somewhere before. On someone else (RHS Chelsea this year).

 

 

My day, possibly week, however was made by seeing Saint Mary of Berry. Whenever Thomas and I make cakes, he says "I'll just go and get Mary Berry" and fetches her baking book from the shelf.

I was star-struck (but not sufficiently to wait an hour to have a copy of her new book signed by her. Wish I had now).

Wordless Wednesday: Soon...

Memories and love

This year has been the year of the wallflower in our front garden. I've grown a few each year over the past four or five years, but this year I have many, many more. And, I'm afraid, I haven't gone subtle. Flame red and orange have set the garden ablaze during one of the dullest, coolest springs I can remember. Rather clashing with the forget-me-nots that self seed throughout the garden, but I can forgive them that.

A few years ago, as an experiment, I left some wallflowers in the back garden after they had flowered. Despite their classification as a biennial, they are more than happy to return year after year - four years so far, in this case. What they aren't, is prolifically floriferous after the first year. Mine are somewhat shy to flower, though much of this bashfulness is not due to their age but to a rather concerted effort by the child of the household to decapitate, stumble over and kick balls into them. I doubt I'd fare too well if I were subjected to such abuse.

Why do I grow them? It's easy to love this sensuous kin of the cabbage. Love of their velvet petals, so soft to the touch of a child. Love of their scent - sweet, with a touch of earthiness. Love of their vibrant colours, alive with detail.

But more than that. Love of the memories they hold for me. When I was a child, my granddad used to grow them from seed. When autumn came, he would dig some up, wrap them in damp newspaper, and give them to my mum for her to plant in our garden. Wallflowers should be sold as transplants in damp newspaper - I feel a pang of disappointment when I buy them online and know that they won't come wrapped up in soggy old news stories, or wrapped in the love of a father for his daughter and a grandfather for his granddaughter.

And so, why do I grow wallflowers? Memories and love.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Ladycow*

(*OED states that ladycow was used before the term ladybird came about).

GBBD - May 2015

I’m a bit forgetful over GBBD at the moment. I happened to notice Michelle at Veg Plotting’s post on wallflowers, which piqued my memory. Ah yes, the wallflowers. They will get a post of their own very soon. But as soon as I finished work this afternoon, I rushed out with the camera to capture the flowers on offer in the garden today.

Spring has come all at once, and we have blossom, tulips, a few very late daffodils, and the start of the summer flowers (alliums) as well. Peony buds are swelling. The scents are wonderful.  The self-sown aquilegias are doing their morphic resonance thing again. And so, I present May 2015.

 

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting GBBD.