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Courtyard Gardens contd
'Where Trains Run on Thyme'
(Silver) A wonderful play on old-style railway station gardens, a signal box became a tool shed, suitcases sprouted brilliant displays of marigolds, antirrhinums and convolvulus. A railway signal became the sundial in the middle of a camomile lawn. A bench rested inside a tunnel of ivy. Old railway ties formed a track planted with scented thymes.
Shrubs gave scale to this garden, a wonderful light-hearted look back by The Gold Club that brought laughter and fun to a rather nostalgic Chelsea.
A Garden For All Seasons
(Silver) From a pair of square pools steps ran through the middle of this garden, ending at a rustic seat. Borders either side were planted for foliage interest with euphorbias, ferns, and perennials.
Designers David Rosewarne & Magie Gray used elevated pots to hold grasses (New Zealand Carex flagellifera) Flower interest came from geraniums, Senecio 'Sunshine', aquilegea and lavender. Several varieties of heuchera, lamium and thyme were used. Pittosproum euginoides, hardy only in the very warmest areas of the UK, and fatsia provided height in the scheme.
A Time for Reflection
(Silver) A slick and streamlined garden. A very successful example of a modern formal garden, borders contained by clipped hedges and paired topiary trees provided symmetry.
A steel wall and Provencal blue seat provided life in a monochrome planting scheme. The planting was mainly green (box and Prunus lusitanica) with blue irises, love-in-a-mist and white from artemisia and arums.
Designer Alex Trotman considers this environment conducive to contemplation an relaxation - and it was tranquil, restful space despite the small size. A lovely visual pun with the refective steel wall and the design theme. Simple and beautiful, a garden that rested the eyes.
Hortus Britannicus
(Bronze) Halls Garden Design devised a garden that celebrated the English gardening tradition. A vine-covered oak pergola faced a water feature across a checkerboard-lined pool. An owl stood sentinel over a water a slow-filling jug spilled water into a brick trough every few minutes. There was even a tiny mock bridge.
Roses tumbled everywhere. The box-edged borders were amongst the few that avoided alliums; instead paeonies, delphiniums, irises and all the stalwarts of the traditional border were there.
The Chocolate Box
(Bronze) Truly a look back to a time that is idealised - a picture book cottage was surrounded with a cottage collection. A wishing well and window boxes completed the look.
Planting was in blue and pink tones, a garden filled to the brim with flower-power. Valerian, lupins, delphiniums, campanula, sweet peas, antirrhinum, iris and geraniums were amongst the traditional plants mixed in with the modern foliage favourites - heuchera, alliums, euphorbia, hosta, carex, artemisia and astilbe.
Heath End Gardening Club's objective was to recreate the exuberance of the cottage garden, as depicted on the chocolate boxes that idealise the cottage dwellers life, and this they did.
Granny's Garden
(Bronze) A garden for a "modern granny" by the Marshalswick Horticultural Society, but a rather nostalgic garden. A pair of archways gave access to the garden and a circular brick path surrounded a small central bed while an arbour shaded a seat.
A blue-mauve haze of flowers planted for scent as well as for fruit, herbs and vegetables. Lavender, roses, delphiniums, alliums, honeysuckle, clematis, fennel, sage and fruit trees in an apparently artless mix.
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Where Trains Run on Thyme
A Garden For All Seasons
A Time for Reflection
A sophisticated monochrome scheme
Hortus Britannicus
The Chocolate Box
Granny's Garden | |
