I always think that summer arrives with the Royal Horticultural Show although it isn’t normally accompanied by severe gales for days , as we have had here. Mind you I’m not complaining when you consider what other people have had to put up with weather wise.
I’ve been enjoying watching all of the coverage on the TV and tonight I’ve been voting for my favourite gardens in the two categories of show garden and small garden. It was quite difficult because sonetimes I really like the planting of a garden but for me it’s spoiled by a horrendous monstrosity of a modern structure. Like the big white thing in Ishihara Kazuyuki Design Lab garden. I loved all of the plants and the design apart from that weird structure. I ended up voting for the Skyshades garden in the Show Garden category because it is really natural and would be great for wildlife. It only got a silver medal.
In the Small Garden category I opted for Hae-Woo-So (Emptying One’s Mind) from Korea. It got a gold which I think it deserved, lovely plants, water and a rustic structure which turned out to be an outside loo and a place to wash your hands. So it’s about emptying your body too! If you have time take a look at the gardens and let me know which are your favourites.
I thought I would like the urban gardens best, or that at least they would be really interesting but I like the artistic gardens quite a lot. They seem so much more casual and comfortable.
Stefanie,
Some of the urban gardens had really good planting but then they felt the need to stick strange things in, like big round metal objects which are just ugly. I think that you can imagine being able to achieve something like the artisan ones, they’re also closer to the size that most folk have to garden with. More homely.
I found I liked the Irish Sky Garden, loved how green it was, also really liked the ability to raise the ‘construction’ and so view your garden from above. But was not sure about the pink metal frame – I would prefer a more natural looking wooden frame.
Michelle,
I really liked the planting in the Irish Sky Garden but I hated the construction. Something like a lovely summer house on stilts would have been better, as you say, with a natural wooden frame. I’m also not a big fan of Diarmuid Gavin! I don’t think the TV coverage was very good this year. Too much gabbing and not enough gardens and plants.