It's always interesting to earwig on conversations at a flower show, you can't really help it when there are so many visitors, and everyone's got their own ideas as to what makes a great show garden or exhibit. One comment I hear time and time again is how inspiring the gardens are and how they're going to try to copy 'that' colour scheme or 'this' style of planting. The thing that I'm going to take away and copy from this years show is not plants but paths.
The back to back gardens are very good for hard landscaping ideas and I spotted a brick edged path in-filled with pebbles stuck into concrete, much like a mosaic. Or, there's a stone path with grass instead of mortar and something more contemporary, a metal grid suspended over a bog garden - almost like a bridge. However, the one that I'm going to copy at home is the path in 'The Garden for Bees'. It's a gravel path planted with an informal drift of thyme, which smells as good as it looks. The good news for me is that I've already got a gravel path, all I have to do is add the 'thyme' and once the flower show is over, I'll have the 'time' to do it. Daffodils in late April
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Rachel De Thame picks her favourite part of the show. "One of the highlights of Tatton for me are the bedding displays. The RHS/ Ball Colegrave National Flowerbed Competition is great and the displays are done better here than anywhere else. It's done much bolder, brighter and better up north and the bedding schemes certainly show that."
"The exhibitiors work very hard on their flowerbeds and often put a lot of humour and skill into them. I particularly like the bed that's like a ploughed field complete with its own hare. There are some great designs with really interesting stories behind them." Info from:
Private Club
