Blooming Chelsea

Chelsea Flower Show is over for another year.  I was disappointed at the absence of one of my favourite designers Tom Stuart-Smith who has worked in collaboration with Laurent-Perrier at Chelsea for a number of years and who's gardens never fail to inspire me.  His ethos is essentially all about the planting, keeping his work very naturalised and using the hard landscaping as a backbone to his gardens.  I have been lucky enough to see his work with his revival of the Italian Gardens at Trentham Gardens and part of the gardens at Wisley.  I grew up in Trentham and saw the decay of the gardens over many years;  in 2005 Stuart-Smith breathed new life into them giving a contemporary twist to Charles Barry's formal Victorian gardens.

He may not have been at Chelsea this year but I am looking forward to visiting Stuart-Smith's current exhibition at the Garden Museum this summer.

Stuart-Smith's perennial borders within the structure of Charles Barry's formal Italian gardens at Trentham

photograph courtesy of Tom Stuart-Smith

So, who did impress me at Chelsea?  I was pleased to see that plants remained the focus of the gardens this year, I'm not fond of gardens where the hard landscaping takes priority.  Quite often the show gardens are just about that - showmanship - something that I don't identify with.  For a designer such as Diarmuid Gavin it is all about the theatre - it may be inspirational but it's unattainable to the average man on the street; I prefer something quietly confident.  It is the smaller artisan and urban gardens that I relate to.  The Lands' End Across the Pond Garden by Adam Frost was my winner.  In a 7m x 5m garden, he created an oasis of calm inspired by the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Lands' End Across the Pond Garden by Adam Frost

photograph courtesy of The RHS

From an aesthetic point of view I have admired some of Lloyd Wright's work but was never aware of his philosophy, that being a strong visual connection between the interior and exterior spaces of a building so that the architecture harmonizes with nature.  Frost has used this philosophy in his Chelsea garden using materials favoured by Frank Lloyd Wright such as polished concrete and water and using strong structural planting where the foliage is as important as the flowers.  The concrete has strong visual impact but does not detract from the planting within the garden.  For me the tight use of colour, presence of water and restrained structural elements reminded me of Tom Stuart-Smith's 2008 Chelsea Garden.

And now it's all over, it just leaves me frustrated - wanting to get into my own garden, inspired but not having the time to spend working on it.  At least the sun is shining and the flowers are blooming so it may be unkempt but at least it's pretty.

The Beth Chatto Gardens

So, Chelsea Flower Show is almost upon us  - I don't have a ticket for the show this year but I will be spending every night next week glued to the television to soak up the atmosphere & note anything that can be applied to my own small garden.

On a gardening note, a few weeks ago we went to a wedding in Essex & had the following day free to explore.  The obvious choice was to head to the coast but then I discovered we were very close to The Beth Chatto Gardens.  I knew my husband wouldn't be too keen to visit yet another garden but I managed to persuade him with the prospect of fantastic cake in the coffee shop.

I had heard alot of the award winning Chelsea designer over the years so it was a privilege to final visit her garden.  She started it in 1960 & has developed it over the years from overgrown wasteland into a gardeners paradise.  You won't find manicured borders here - everything had a very naturalised planting scheme that seems to have evolved from a very organic thought process.  There are four clearly defined areas to the garden - the famous gravel garden, a woodland area, a water garden formed of natural ponds & a scree garden.  I was very pleased as I walked around that quite a few of the key plants are ones that I already have in my own garden.  That certainly didn't stop me from spending in the nursery afterwards!  We took the opportunity to take lots of photographs for future inspiration.  If you are heading in that direction & like gardens then it is well worth a visit - or you could just go for the carrot & banana cake - it didn't disappoint either.

 Ajuga reptans

 rhododendron

 primula japonica

 bergenia

Myosotis 'forget-me-not'