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!!