Those who say that gardens at flower shows are out of touch with real gardening would do well to visit BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2018. There are ideas aplenty for the sort of small spaces most of us have, from planting combinations to nifty ways of making the most of every inch.
This year, there are an impressive 24 entries in the Beautiful Borders contest and a new competition promoting young landscapers where two teams have produced tiny gardens based on designs by Diarmuid Gavin, while the APL avenue gardens combine plants, relaxation and entertaining.
Add to that show gardens, small gardens, wheelbarrows planted by schools and a marquee packed with nursery exhibits and there is certainly plenty to see.
Here are a few of the things that I spotted on the press preview – a relaxed affair with the finishing touches being put to gardens, judges moving around deliberating on the final medals and the nursery stands still being assembled.
The star of the Gardeners’ World Live show is definitely ‘The Eagle’ – a working steam engine and Pullman Carriage on a show garden by Paul Stone. Entitled ‘Made in Birmingham’, it celebrates the city’s industry and its position at the heart of the national railway network.
Alongside the beautifully restored carriage – you can go inside to admire and get a different view of the garden – Paul has planted up an allotment, the sort that you often see from train windows.
There’s also a lovely cut flower garden with the plants grown by volunteers from MIND with help from Flowers from the Farm.
David Stevens’ garden for Wyevale Garden Centres aims to solve some common gardening problems with different areas showing ideas for difficult spots, such as shade or dry.
I liked the container planting on Owen Morgan’s garden for Tesco, particularly the use of easily available, low-cost window boxes for herbs and veg.
There were also some well-planted raised beds of veg – perfect for fitting into a small space and easier to manage than a traditional veg plot.
The APL Avenue puts the spotlight on the often-overlooked members of the horticulture business, the professional landscapers. This contest judges gardens on both the design and the execution of that design, be it hard landscaping or planting.
Two RHS Malvern regulars – designer Martyn Wilson and landscaper Rupert Keys, of Keyscape – have joined forces to produce a really beautiful garden for a city location.
Martyn, who won gold at RHS Hampton Court last year and designed the gold-medal winning RAF centenary garden at this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival, told me that he had been inspired by his first garden at a Victorian terrace house in Worcester.
It’s cleverly thought out with hedging on one side to provide privacy, a composite fence that doubles as a backdrop for a modern sculpture and planting that shows how to deal with both shade and full sun.
The garden is called ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’ to reflect its role in giving the owners a chance to be outside but it was the injection of colour that I really liked. Orange, red and purple are woven through the borders and the deep bronze of other plants is echoed in the Corten steel bench and burner.
The accent colours were then picked out in garden furniture, giving the whole garden a really cohesive feel. No wonder it won the pair a gold medal – giving Rupert his second top award in a row having built the Best in Show garden at RHS Malvern in May.
Elsewhere on the APL Avenue, there was a sense of fun in the ‘Inspiration in the Raw’ Garden, which used recycled materials.
The swing was tempting.
There was also a swing on the ‘Across the Board’ Garden, though this was a more architectural design.
I liked the idea of breaking up paving with plants.
Though as a gardener who is constantly battling against horsetail, I wasn’t sure about introducing the cultivated form.
The sheep on ‘This Wild Life Garden’ were fun.
The Beautiful Borders competition at Gardeners’ World Live has a theme of Small Space ideas and it was interesting to see just what some of the designers had managed to fit in.
Jillly Raggett got a seat into her border.
There was a water feature on Nikki Hollier’s design.
And even a pond on the border created by Emma Berry.
Or what about a bicycle repurposed as a plant container? This was on Frances Taylor and Jo Dowsett’s border.
Among the interesting planting combinations were some that used just foliage.
There’s an exotic feel to the planting on Rebecca Thompson’s border.
Shades of green by Natalie Forkin.
A quirky bug hotel by Aldetha Raymond and Tiernach McDermott.
And this Small Garden by Julie Haylock had a really tranquil feel.
With some beautiful planting combinations.
• Gardeners’ World Live is at Birmingham NEC from June 14-17, 2018. For more details, visit the website.