Notebooks and smartphones at hand, visitors to RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival are busy making note of floral fancies, planting perfection and creative landscaping – if you didn’t make it to the show this time, here are some of my favourites to get the ideas flowing. With a little bit of imagination, having a beautiful garden doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Shed loads of satisfaction
On several gardens, genius versions of the garden shed have been lovingly put together using “whatever we could find in the skip,” one designer told me. On Bridging the Gap: Richmond Allotments, they have used recycled floor boards to build a potting shed, with windows that were being dumped, and the addition of a strawberry-filled roof. Pick-your-own on another level!
On the Give Pain the Boot allotment old doors have been joined to create a mini greenhouse, which oozes old-world charm and is the perfect home to a collection of houseplants and exotics but could easily be used for growing fruit and veg too. You can often pick up unwanted doors at reclamation yards and the joy of putting this kind of structure together yourself is being able to make it fit any space, however quirky or irregular.
In the Lamiaceae borders, The Garden of Simples makes the best use of every space by hanging herbs to dry from, and around, the roof of their pretty shed. The shelving in this tiny but practical structure is perfect for either storage or showing off a plant collection, and this kind of building could be slotted into small spaces, or fixed to a wall or fence, the roof giving that little bit of extra protection for your treasures.
The big screen
In A Garden of Two Tales, steel rods have been cut to size and pushed through drilled holes in wooden blocks. The blocks are hidden under planting and mulch, and the rods pushed into the ground beneath to create different heights. These have two purposes – screen and support. The views through the garden are gently hidden and revealed as you move around the space. These structures double-up as plant supports. You can either tie plants to them or let climbers find their own way skyward. If steel is too pricey you could create a similar, lighter effect using strong bamboo canes. Having different lengths means you can either have straight formal tops or gentle waves at the top of the support.
On The Subaru Cocoon garden, dark bricks make a dramatic statement, used both as a retaining wall and as a screen. By positioning them at an angle to create a curved boundary, there are spaces between the bricks, allowing shards of light to pass through them and create interesting shadows.
A splash of colour
Surrey County Council’s garden brings a little colour to the proceedings, with beautifully painted bollards that feature scenes of birds, flowers and insects. In vivid primary colours to match the containers, these would certainly brighten up any street and are much more eye-catching, and therefore visible for safety, than your standard black bollard. If you’d like to inject some colour into your neighbourhood, contact your local council to seek permission first.
On The Quiet Retreat balcony, the shelves have been painted the same earthy, terracotta tone as the rear walls, making the space feel cohesive. This is a clever design trick for making a space feel bigger, as the colour blends together as one, and also feels calming to sit in, like being in a French Provençal village.
Potted perfection
Wicker pots in the Pocket Potager, KLC School of Design Creative Cube make a textural focal point. These could be crafted at home, with a little patience. If you want to have large planted pots, but stone or terracotta ones are too expensive, you could upcycle large containers you already have, or check in salvage yards, and clad them with woven willow. Highly therapeutic and it’s always good to learn a new skill.
Wooden wine crates make useful and classy-looking containers, but need lining with some sort of waterproof material before filling with soil, to stop them quickly rotting. D’Arcy & Everest created an exciting display in the Floral Marquee that gave lots of interesting ideas for planting combinations – some edible, some ornamental. Ask at your local wine shop for unwanted wine boxes.
Seat or storage?
In Coastal Reflections, one of the Lamiaceae borders, created by the London College of Garden Design, a wooden topped bench is also home to a neatly stacked pile of logs that are stored beneath. For smaller gardens, making use of every space is important, and you’ll also be providing a wonderful home for many creatures.
On a similar theme, in the Telling Stories, Making Memories Lamiaceae border, gabions filled with reclaimed construction materials provide the structural base of a bench, also topped with wood. You’ll never look at building waste the same way again – a great way to reduce landfill in the construction industry.
