Press day at Gardeners’ World Live is a slightly strange experience. Far more relaxed than any RHS event – no stewards keeping you away from the judges as they deliberate – it was at times difficult to know what was going on.
Admittedly, I turned up earlier than the 3pm scheduled start time, knowing there was a lot of show to get around. So, I quite expected to see hi-vis jackets and knew the Floral Marquee displays would still be being put together.
However, I hadn’t expected the gardens to have empty information boards and this, added to the fact most designers had made themselves scarce while their efforts were judged and the lack of programmes until much later, made it difficult to know which garden was which.
Despite all this – and the ever present threat of rain – it was a good trip with some interesting gardens and take-home ideas.
The garden that everyone was talking about was ‘The Watchmaker’s Garden’ by Alexandra Froggatt and there was little surprise that it carried off the top awards of Platinum and Best Show Garden.
Inspired by Birmingham’s 19th century watch-making industry, it cleverly mixes flowers and vegetables to give a timeless display.
The garden also has lots of wild flowers – a trend that was seen at RHS Chelsea last month.
One garden that was obvious to identify was the ‘Canal & River Trust Garden – Making Life Better by Water’ by Chris Myers. It too makes good use of wild flowers with naturalistic riverside planting.
I liked the rustic nature of this part, which looked as though the plants had planted themselves.
‘Onward & Upward’, designed by Andy Tudbury, has a wild flower meadow as its main planting and is designed to highlight the benefits of horticultural therapy for injured serving members of the armed forces.
The APL avenue is a section sponsored by the Association of Professional Landscapers and designed to show what can be achieved in a small space. My favourite was ‘High Line’ by Lucy Bravington because of the contrast of the hard landscaping and soft planting.
It’s inspired by the high-rise park in New York and also impressed the judges, winning Platinum and the Best Construction award.
The Four Horses of the Apocalypse on ‘Revelation’ by Mike Baldwin are certainly a startling sight.
Set behind it are smaller gardens, designed by students at the college.
The mosaic path is an interesting idea.
I liked the planting under the standard photinia – the orange reflects the corporate colour of the MS Society, which sponsored the Silver Merit-winning garden.
Orange also features on Martyn Wilson’s ‘The Macmillan Legacy Garden’, which won silver and is inspired by gifts left to the charity in people’s wills.
The contrast of planting against the modern planters was effective.
It was good to see the front gardens I discussed recently with David Stevens. He drew up the contrasting designs for two teams of young landscapers to put together.
Both won gold with the Young Landscapers Award going to Matthew Woods and Sam Gordon for ‘The Heritage Garden’.
This is an interesting way to add water to a small space, spotted on ‘The Home Solutions by John Lewis Garden’, designed by Shaun Beale. It got gold.
Also good was this way of breaking up hard landscaping with plants seen on the ‘Harborne Botanics’ garden by Toby Pritchard. It won Silver Merit.
As in previous years, The Beautiful Borders contest at Gardeners’ World Live has a wide range of styles, this year under the theme of ‘Our Space’.
How’s this for a recycling idea?
This bug hotel caught my eye and would be easy to make.
Finally, a blast of colour on the ‘PRIDE’ border by Jordan Weston, a welcome sight on what was a grey, rainy day.
BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2019 runs at the NEC, Birmingham until Sunday June 16.