A new view
Show report and pictures by Lauren B Hobbs, aged 10
I was very pleased to be able to come to Chelsea this year because I love gardens. My teachers were jealous that I got in.
The first garden I saw was Andy Sturgeon's - I really enjoyed it. I thought it really deserved the gold award. The garden was trying to show how important it is to keep in the shade so you do not get cancer. The water feature is amazing and I would love to go for a swim in it. The garden would be perfect for a barbecue. The silver plants really stand out; it was quite clever of him to use lots of different types of grasses.
The next garden I saw was called the 4head garden of dreams and was designed by Marney Hall and Heather Yarrow. The mirrors on the lady's face I really enjoyed looking at, the way she was made just looked so amazingly beautiful. The driftwood den is a lovely place to sit in and the pond puts that little extra touch in to the garden; the carved wooden bridge was really clever of the designers. I adore the colour scheme of green purple and white.
We walked on to Stephen Woodham's garden - a friend of mums. He invited us on, it was really pretty but the waterfall was my favourite part. The garden was like a sanctuary so peaceful and quiet. In the garden there is a thing called a ha ha, it was there so you could stop animals getting in the garden. They are going to use the garden and put it into a hotel in the Cotswolds. The flowers that have been chosen for the garden really coordinate and I thought it was beautiful how the roses were entwined between the fence.
Bradstone's garden was enjoyable - tihe shelter was really nice for it had a circle bench. The bamboo chars were really cool, the pattern on the path was quite unusual, the bamboo-like reed in the water looked like snakes.
The Savill garden had some really lovely statues and a fabulous modern shelter. The rodgersia looked beautiful with the yellow and pink flowers matching the tall white foxgloves. I liked the tuffs of grass spilling over the edge in contrast to the sharp edges of box cube hedging. The white stems of silver birch tied the design together matching the white walls of the garden and I particularly liked the low wide waterfall. The design was based on a house and garden in America.
Laurent Perrier Garden I thought looked like a castle with the white walls. The chateau was really beautiful. All the flowers in the garden like growing in chalky soil; roses, irises, peonies and vines (the company makes bubbly champagne.)
Cleve West’s garden was really nice because it had a massive sculpture that looked to me like a shell. There were some gigantic pots in the same style. Moving on in the garden were some really cool dividing walls split and held together with metal bars - funky! The planting was set out really well, many of the plants were medicinal, grown by Jekka, and fabulous red tulips at the front of the garden gave it real zing.
Reflective Height City Garden
This
was small but very effective. I liked the kite-shaped shades, which again were to protect you from the sun's harmful rays. I really wished I could have eaten the chocolates by the really cool bench, which matched an even cooler concealed BBQ.
Dias Vagos, which means lazy days
This was my favourite small garden, just about right in size for me. I enjoyed looking at the painting of the deer on the walls and loved the beautiful hedge filled with flowers. I’d love to walk through the really pretty wisteria clad garden
Ravine Garden Gift of the Glacier
I think this garden had a message about global warming. At the top of the garden were symbolic pieces of ice/the glacier, which melted down the hill in the form of a stream into a lake below, which had glass edges and the water spilt over into a black pebble beach.
Lebanese Courtyard garden
This was a garden for a really hot country. It had a hairy fence and a shady olive tree. I loved the outdoor eating area but I didn’t like the old cans filled with flowers, I would have painted them. I loved the bright poppies and the sweet smelling flowers - stocks.
Australian Garden
I loved the modern style, the table was ‘funkiliscious’ - water actually came through the glass table and spilled out of the end in a shimmering waterfall. The garden was like a house with no roof, there were even sofas and a BBQ. There was an aborigine, painted with white streaks and playing a didgeridoo.
Leeds City Council
The fountain sculpture is fantastic there are some really nice stepping-stones on the grass. I didn’t really like the shelter the flower choice was surprising but altogether a good garden.
Bournemouth garden pulled the message across my face ‘eat your five a day’ and so now I really do eat my five fruit and veg every day. The stand is very interesting for the fruits on top are made out of flowers. The sand sculpture was brilliant it must have been so hard to make, but looked so amazing
The gorilla garden is going in 2007 to London zoo for the gorillas there to live in - how cool is that!
Jurassic coast was really amazing. The man who designed it let me hold the fossil that he had found on the beach; he showed me a real dinosaur footprint in the river.
Chris beardshaw's garden was my favourite big garden despite the rain. He let me on it. I loved the long straight pond and the statue in the middle with a child holding a fish. It was very peaceful inside the pavilion at the end, he turned on a old fashioned CD player with a bouncy tune.
I had great fun at Chelsea and I would really like to go next year. Still Hampton Court next and lots to do in my own jungle of a garden!