The weather has been rather warm and sunny so when I set off for Gardeners World Live I made sure I had sunscreen and my sun hat with me.
I got stuck in straight away to the gardens. I am not featuring all of them as some I would have liked to feature had a lot of people walking on them, so its not that I didn't rate them, I just couldn't get a good photo of them. I arrived fairly late in the afternoon so the crowds were less and it was starting to get a little cooler, this meant I felt I had time to have a good wander. This is The Secret Homestead designed by Lucy Hutchings aka @shegrowsveg. Regular readers may recall Lucy kindly took part in my 'The Questions' series a couple of years ago. I really like this garden, it is beautifully planted. What is clever about the garden is that whilst it looks very ornamental, and for a moment I was thinking 'but where's the veg?', all the plants used are edible.
This is 'In the Pink' designed by Sue Kent. It is gloriously pink and I love it.
The colour matching of the shades of pink work really well.
The Imaginary Topiary designed by Ralph Bourdoukan gave a welcome relief of some cooling water.
'Keep off the Grass' designed by James Fenneburg is a drought tolerant garden which is very apt after the recent few weeks we have had with little rain in this part of the country. You could almost feel the heat radiating from it.
I could have happily taken a seat in 'Paradise in Paperback' designed by Eleanor Morgan, the seat looked so comfy and the planting is delightful. I rarely actually just sit and be in the garden, it is an aim I should have.
I kept wandering and made my way around to the designed borders. This is actually two totally separate borders, one in front of the other, and yet I thought they complimented each other really well.
I think what I always enjoy about the borders is that the space is small and yet they do so much within it.
I nodded hello to the school displays. I like that children are being encouraged to garden and take part in these shows, it gives me hope.
The cornflowers on the 'Fit for a King' garden designed by Paul Stone stole my attention, the sight of them en masse was wonderful.
and I learn things as I wander around. This is The Restoration Garden designed by Carleen Osbourne. It is a recreation of Wingfield Station in Derbyshire, the original of which is one of the earliest remaining railway buildings. The station closed in the 1960s and had fallen into neglect but is now being restored by Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust.
I admired the exotic planting in The Fontana Garden designed by Kim Parish but now it felt like it was time for me to get into the Floral Marquee.
I do love the Floral Marquee. The displays are wonderful. My peonies are just going over so these were a delight to see.
I spend time admiring the various bonsai displays.
I stopped to admire the Barnsdale Gardens display, featuring the bust of Geoff Hamilton. They are celebrating 40 years of some of the gardens he created for television at Barnsdale.
and I stopped to admire the Hardys Cottage Garden Plants stand and to have a quite catch up with Rob Hardy and to make a purchase.
I paused briefly at this pretty stand of various veg/salady plants and moved on.
I had to tear myself away from this dragon, if I had the funds......
but I did make purchases:
I bought this Hosta 'Dragon Tails' from New Forest Hostas
and this Indigofera kirilowii from Hardys Cottage Garden Plants.
I enjoyed my visit to the show, it felt nicely spaced out and there was lots to see. There seems more outdoors these days than there is indoors, though I did have a look at the indoor stands. I managed not to buy any houseplants which felt like a test of willpower. I stood at the back of one of the talks and listend to some chap talking about this garden, I then realised 'some chap' was Monty - well it was quite a distance to the stage....
