INSPIRATION FROM CHELSEA
There’s nothing to beat the Chelsea flower show for stacks of inspiration: gardens both large and small are packed with ideas to ‘take home’, and back in May I spent a day at the show gathering all the latest ones.
Clever space-saving features and designs are on the increase, to correspond with diminishing garden sizes. ’Outdoor rooms’ featured in many gardens as home offices, children’s playrooms and entertaining, and I was particularly impressed by the use of space made by two-storey summerhouses. A rotating spherical glass lounger is perfect for anyone with a fantastic view and a spare £7,000 or so!
Nearly every garden incorporated seating, sculptures or ornaments of some kind, and these make an impressive difference to any plot when used as focal points in key views: such as at the end of a path or in the centre of the view from a main door or window, for example. A wide range of materials included metal, stone and wood, with prices for every budget, plus ideas can be adapted at little or no cost. The Great Chelsea Garden Challenge garden featured circles made of rusted tin cans threaded onto metal loops and mounted on recycled wooden blocks, whilst driftwood and characterful branches appeared elsewhere.
Planting themes cover an immense range so again there’s something for everyone. My favourite plantings combined the two: striking contrasts of formally clipped yew domes or blocks of box, next to natural-looking drifts of colourful flowering perennials blended with airy ornamental grasses. The totally naturalistic look continues to be immensely popular with Dan Pearson’s Chatsworth garden winning Best in Show, so if your garden has got somewhat out of hand this summer, simply mow a couple of paths and a neat edge to your lawn, quickly snap off the worst of the weeds, and tell visitors that you’re right on trend. Worth a try anyway!
Seasonal jobs
- Buy pot grown bedding and patio plants to add bursts of colour to bare spots in borders or containers. It may seem late in the season, but you could still get a good three months of blooms.
- Keep tubs and hanging baskets blooming for months too, by regular deadheading, watering, and a weekly liquid feed.
- Start thinking about spring bulbs. Yes, really. It may seem incredibly early, but narcissi and first-bloomers like crocus really benefit from September planting. Order catalogues now and eye up potential planting sites like under established shrubs and trees, or naturalising in grass.
- Make regular sowings (every 3 weeks or so) of quick-growing salad leaf mixes and annual herbs like coriander. Other veg like spinach, leaf beet, Oriental greens and carrots can be sown now to crop in autumn or to stand over winter for an early harvest next year.
Sue Fisher is a garden designer and writer based on the Bere Peninsula. Tel 01822 841895. Email: suefisher@talktalk.net Website: www.suefishergardens.co.uk