Early Sunday morning

What gorgeous weather we are having; and how worthwhile it is getting up early in the morning – Sundays seem to be particularly wonderful. There is no noise as the rest of the human world seems to be asleep. Sitting out on the step this morning admiring the stunning deep greens that this early summer has bought us, there was a small hullabaloo going on in the trees. A pair of great tits appear to have reared the first of their broods and were busy hoovering up small insects to feed to their voracious young.

The dew is full on on mornings such as this. Alchemilla mollis, or more prettily named Lady’s mantle gathers the dew into individual drops. In medieval times these drops of water were collected for beauty purposes as people thought they had magical properties.

Despite the lack of rain, the garden is looking rampant. There are some wonderful pairings that have occurred without my say so! My geums, Mrs Bradshaw, are presenting me with a sea of red. Seeding themselves amongst them is Love in the Mist (goodness knows where it came from), and it sets off its pale blue next to the hot red. It has also paired up with my favourite Euphorbia ‘Silver Swan’. Later on as the helenniums come to the fore, the geums will put up one or two stalks throughout the summer presenting me with bright red highlights amongst the planting.

My other great pleasure at this time of the year is the advent of one of my favourite shrubs philadelphus. One of the advantages of living on chalk (and they are few and far between!) is that philadelphus thrive on it. I have various varieties; Manteau D’Hermine, and Belle Etoile; their scents mingle with the the heat during the day. One of the most memorably scented gardens I have ever worked in was a small garden not far from here. For about a month going to work there meant a heady scent of honeysuckle and philadelphus. What a joy. A garden without scent is like living life without chocolate! A great loss.

Chelsea 2009

The one thing about gardening is that it gives time for reflection. For once I am not up against it time-wise; the Bank Holiday is giving us glorious weather and all the office work can wait until tomorrow (when apparently we are going to have thunderstorms and rain). In the meantime I can poddle around my veg patch which is sadly neglected and do all those things that good gardeners do (and I never have time for); removing stones, breaking up the soil, adding compost and dare I say it a few seeds. But most importantly of all it gives my mind time to reflect, to mull over this last week and what we have seen and done. Chelsea. My first impressions were ..... interesting.... if not in some instances depressing. My problem is that I love ‘brights’. Time in Australia has given me a huge appreciation of colour. I love subtlety but too much of it leaves me feeling that something is missing. Don’t get me wrong the Daily Telegraph garden was outstanding. Beautifully planted and executed. Its colours a mastery in the shade cast by the huge plane trees that inhabit Chelsea. And therein lies some of the problem. For Chelsea you have to plant so that when there is no sun and those fabulous plane trees leach out the contrasts from your planting the garden still looks great. So white, silver, light and shade are incredibly important. As a result some of the gardens left me with a feeling of depression not upliftment.

In the midst of this sobriety several gardens stand out. The fantastically over the top, palette breaking colours of the plasticine garden by James May. The RHS has a sense of humour! I loved it. It reminds us that we are all children; playing is fun; gardens are fun and should sometimes be controversial. It made me laugh. Secondly the Quilted Velvet Garden by Tony Smith. I loved it. He is a perfectionist and stays true to his vision; harder than you might think when you have a weighty sponsor behind you and all credit to the sponsor on this. Tony’s slate walls were amongst the most beautifully constructed I have ever seen. His planting a fantastic mixture of constraint and colour. So what if bizzy lizzies are not the in-vogue plant? They are loved by many gardeners and add much needed colour and life to many gardens. Here they provided a fantastic sea of pink out of which the steps of slate rose creating a ladder to the refuge of the seat. Sometimes I think that we take gardening too seriously; we are all afraid of making mistakes. How can we learn if we do not make mistakes? Chelsea should allow that.

It was also good to see that many of the show gardens this year were being reused and recycled. The stunning rose Perfume Garden was possibly going to be installed elsewhere.

And yes, I forgot my camera...... but then the link to the website can give you access immediately to all the photographs and virtual tours!!

Chelsea

Well, next week, I am off up to Chelsea to have a wander and enjoy. It will be interesting, as even this world-famous show has been hit by the recession both with ticket sales and with exhibitors. We will take lots of pictures, and will let you know how it goes

Spring Candles

Spring is in full throttle, and going back to one of my main joys of being in the countryside, namely trees there is one specimen that is currently standing out. The horse chestnuts at the moment look magnificent. They are stunningly green and sporting their spring Christmas tree accessories in the form of their fabulous white candle flowers. They are utterly beautiful, and all the more so, as last year saw their spring dressing decimated with the larvae of the leaf-mining moth which turned their leaves a premature brown. There is a particularly spectacular tree at Pimperne near Blandford. If you turn off the A354 into the village, it sits in solitary splendour in front of you. The space underneath it has been cleared away and heavily mulched to protect its root system. It is quite, quite beautiful.

Spring forward

I seem to spend an increasing amount of time in my car, driving from pillar to post (desperately environmentally unfriendly I realise, but very friendly as far as my clients are concerned). Despite this, one of the real pleasures at this time of year, and I know I have mentioned it before, is the arrival of spring. I remember years ago when I first came and lived in Hampshire a friend mentioned having a picnic in the woods on May Bank Holiday surrounded by bluebells. That was about 1996. Since then I have seen the bluebells arrive earlier and earlier, but finally this year I think they would have enjoyed repeating the experience. We have a number of bluebell woods in this area; there is nothing to beat the sight of the sky being reflected at ground level. It is almost Dali-like in its surprise. Topping the rise of a hill and seeing the sky below you only to realise that they are not trees floating unanchored in the clouds but sheets of bluebells interspersed by blooms of wild garlic.

In addition to the bluebells frequenting our woods, I cannot help but notice how many cowslips we now have; both on the banks of the motorways (where they outnumber the primroses) and in some of the chalk land around us. Near the Sixpenny Handley roundabout, where there is some intermittently grazed pasture, the fields have literally been covered with them. As a child (a very very long time ago) I remember the excitement of finding them peeking out of long grass beside a track; even then they were uncommon. Now they are even prepared to seed themselves in my vegetable garden!

Where do all the Show gardens go?

Performing in shows has its draw backs. And performing is what it is. Whichever RHS show you enter the design and planting has to put on a performance. There are huge highs and lows. And one of the lows, for many of the designers is watching their creations (that is if they can bear to) being binned at the end of the week. It is nice to see that one of our leading designers, Tom Stuart-Smith, rescued his Telegraph design and transplanted it into his own garden. But this does beg the question: what we are designing for and with? The RHS does its best to ensure that each garden has its element of recycling both in it and from it. However they are limited by what is achievable. Both our gardens in The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show were small. We are a tiny company and we funded the gardens ourselves and they were a substantial investment. As a result, we had no intention of throwing them away. We were fortunate to sell the first one, and the second we have disassembled and used throughout other gardens. But nothing was thrown away – not even the slate used for the paths. To create a garden that is going to be reused requires a whole different design and construction mind-set. And a whole different set of costs; particularly if it is going to be taken down and reassembled – effectively one garden for the price of two. The hugely expensive set pieces at Chelsea and Hampton Court provoke thought, debate and help taking design to another level. But selling off plants at the end of the day, whilst a tradition and assisting with raising funds (in some cases) or at least giving the plants a home, seems to me to be a sop to the larger problem/attitude that we have about the disposability of some of our more valued assets.