Inspiring gardens

Hampton Court Palace taken from a bridge over the Long Water

I have finally come back to earth after last week and have rested and taken some time out. The show was great for us and we were really pleased with how it all went. It is a lot of work putting together a stand at one of these larger shows but it is well worth the extra effort. It all came together just as we had planned and the new range with all the fruit and veg fitted perfectly... We also received lots of lovely comments on the overall look of the stand too.

Apart from the very muddy, rainy start to the week and a drip on our stall (at least we were inside!), the remainder of the week was lovely and sunny. We also got a chance to look around and I thought i would share with you some of the gardens that caught my eye.



This is the small garden fom Alton Infants School , which is in the town where our studio is.

The garden represents a microcosm of the school grounds and has been designed for education and fun. As the Chinese proverb says, 'I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand'. The garden teaches the children conservation, recycling, organic gardening, plant and animal life cycles and caring for the world.
They won best small garden and a gold medal. They did have a chicken too but apparently only there for 'press day'.

Selborniensis

Another beautiful small garden was 'Selborniensis', I was drawn to this garden not realising it was created by two women from our locality. It is inspired by the work of naturalist Gilbert White.
I love the use of the apple as a screen, the relaxed naturalistic planting and the clay sculptures.

Best in Show was this fantastic garden;
The Growing Schools Garden - learning outside the classroom

designed by the lovely Chris Beardshaw. It illustrates how teaching and learning can take place outside the classroom and has been created with participation from children of all ages from more than 30 schools. This spider and web is fantastic and i expect we will be seeing them pop up in schools throught the uk!

The Daily Mail had a large feature garden 'The Darling Buds of May', and as you can imagine it was full of nostalgia and extremely popular. They even had a Pig with her piglets who liked to sleep in a row in the sun. Very cute!

And my favourite view was of the lovely lovely veg!

Other inspiring favourites were
The Torres Tapas Garden
The Giving Garden
The Smile Garden
The 'Chase' Secret Garden
Wildlife Garden in a Skip
and
Infinity

After all the rain we've had my garden is in need of lots of attention.. and now i have a few new ideas...i wonder if the kids would like to make a giant spider?

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