Some of my highlights from Gardeners' World Live

* I was invited to the press preview for and provided with a pair of tickets to Gardeners’ World Live so I’m marking posts from the show as 'Ad’ - as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

We had a brilliant overnight trip to Birmingham last week for Gardeners’ World Live. I’d not been to the press preview event before, and it’s definitely something I’d do again if I’m invited. It was so nice to see the gardens with fewer people about, and to really chat to those on each garden. We had tickets for the show the next day as well and that made for a more relaxed viewing of everything to see - usually getting to see everything in a day can be hard work.

Overnight we stayed in the Fredericks Street Townhouse in the Jewellery Quarter of the city (paid for, not gifted) - an area we’d not visited before, not to stay or even wander around. It’s a great part of town, and it’s on my list of places in Birmingham to explore further - the buildings alone must have so much history.

But back to the show, here’s just some of my highlights - I’ve so much more to share but am still trying to take it relatively easy while my hand is bandaged. Though the bandage is much grubbier than it was, which I’m taking as an indication that my hand is healing and therefore I am naturally using it more.

Fontana Garden by Kim Parish

For me the tree top room in the Fontana Garden by Kim Parish is the iconic image from this year’s show. At the awards ceremony on the Wednesday, where garden designers learnt of their award, we also learnt that Monty would be opening the show from here, and he did.

This garden celebrates Cornwall and Cornish gardens with inspiration from the sponsor’s own garden, Fontana - wouldn’t it be a dream to have a garden just like this?

The garden right next door had a completely different feel bringing a touch of industrial charm using reclaimed materials. I loved the screen made of scaffold planks for its impact, and heard others also say - it’s got a shelf - but I’m sure it will also attract wildlife, a good thing, but I’m less keen on sharing it with the spiders.

Path of Renewal by David Negus

The Newson Health Menopause Garden by Ruth Gwynn was stunning, and very worthy of its Platinum award, and the best in show. It was designed as a safe, tranquil and comfortable space for women to reflect on their health. Ruth and Dr Louise Newson spoke at the Wednesday ceremony about their garden, and both were just so inspiring, saying that menopause was something that directly affects 51% of the population, and indirectly affects 49% of the population. That brought a wry smile from the women present, and a slightly delayed one from other members of the audience.

The Newson Health Menopause Garden by Ruth Gwynn

When we saw this garden the bath looked so inviting, that for more than a moment I wasn’t sure that MOH wasn’t going to actually try it out or not (he didn’t!).

Escaping Seasons of The Mind by Lilidh Matthews & John Tallis

I loved the structure of the Escaping Seasons of The Mind garden, and I’m a big fan of corten steel, but when I spoke with Lilidh about the garden and what the posts and the journey through the garden represent, it was clear how much thought went into this garden design. Much more than I can do in a short paragraph, so watch out for more on this one, but until then enjoy the decorative corten and planting on display.

It’ll be no surprise to anyone that I was drawn to Sue Kent’s In the Pink Beautiful Border, and it was just as pink as you thought it might be, and then some. It was also a well deserved Plantinum winner.

In the Pink by Sue Kent

A fantastic display by the National Allotment Society

I’m a sucker for vegetables growing in ordered straight rows - most likely because it’s something I’ve never and ever likely to achieve! But I admire those that can, and I’d expect nothing less from the National Allotment Society to be honest.

Also in the floral marquee it was good to see the Barnsdale Gardens stand. They are celebrating 40 years - Geoff Hamilton moved to the current site of the gardens in 1983. I don’t remember him as a Gardeners’ World presenter but we have visited the gardens and they are amazing, and we’re glad that we will soon (hopefully) be living much closer to them to visit again.

The final beautiful border that I’m sharing is one that’s something quite different. It also won awards, including for the best interpretation of the theme, which this year was ‘My Garden Escape’. And no doubt for the best name (if there was an award) as despite its name - Keep Off The Grass by James Fenneberg - had no actual grass.

Keep Off The Grass! by James Fenneberg

The garden transports you through the use of plants and materials - the agaves, and volcanic sand were stunning as were the yellow red hot pokers (another favourite of mine!). James was also one of the few garden designers perpetually armed with a hose or watering can too, and given the weather and increasing temperatures with our changing climate, it’s something more of us are no doubt likely to be giving more thought too.

There’s still so much more to share though, and over the summer I’ll be dipping back into my Gardeners’ World Live photos and sharing more of the gardens with you - as well as the wheelbarrows, always a favourite of mine. If you can’t wait, then I’ve saved a highlight onto my Instagram profile, so pop over there and see more.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live this year, it was fabulous.

My garden in May

This month our garden has carried on from April when it woke up, but it’s changed quite dramatically too. The tulips are gone, and the alliums have come and are starting to fade. The colour palette has changed from the spring yellow and blues to include more pinks and purples, and more plants are preparing to flower - the hydrangeas and the sweet peas are readying themselves, and if the past two months are anything to go by they’ll be planning to put on quite a show.

But back to May.

The month started gloomily, and I think here in the UK we were wondering if the sun would return in time for summer. It has, but it’s taken a while for it to get here, and now we’re not that far into June the forecast is for temperatures in the very high twenties - so quite a change!

The laburnum though flowered against the gloomy skies, and then a week or so later against much bluer skies. I was pleased to see this one return, as it was a tree we had cut last summer and up until recently hadn’t shown much sign of wanting to do anything much. They’re great trees, though I think they are short changed alongside the more instagram-worthy wisterias, but they do look better against a blue sky, don’t they?

The acer unfurled all its leaves and then some - it grew, and grew, making a bid for the centre of the garden until I took my secateurs to it and gave it some ‘guidance’ on how I wanted it to grow. Since then it’s behaved itself and I love the colour that it brings to the patio.

This year ‘No Mow May’ was much more in mainstream media, and MOH left the lawn for as long as he could. We lasted well into the third week of the month, but with good reason that was it for us. Our ‘No Mow May’ meant a lot more work, as the dandelion flowers changed to dandelion clocks, which were scattered by the wind.

Our challenge was to prevent them spreading too widely, or else we’d have a dandelion lawn quite quickly - and this became a mammoth task. It was great to see the bees on the dandelion flowers, but there were just too many clocks to manage - we’d regularly fill a trug with them, and so for us it was right to mow again, as picking the dandelion clocks meant we weren’t doing other gardening jobs. That said it was great to see the lawn a bit more natural and it’s something we’d do again.

The violas from the winter bedding continued to flower, and then last year’s summer bedding came back for a return display - they’re both still going strong, so I’m leaving them to do their thing.

The mock orange is now covered with new growth, and while I’m not sure we’ll get any flowers this year as it was cut back quite severely last year, I’m pleased to see it come back with such vigour. Sometimes cutting things back really helps the plant, and it definitely helps the light levels in our narrow, tree-filled garden.

The potted olive tree also has new growth, and a lot more light. Its pot is just by the mock orange so it too has benefitted from the work last year. It’s amazing how this tree has come on, we’ve had it many years and it was a free sample from a Gardeners’ World magazine probably in the mid-2000s.

On the patio the alliums and our Gertrude Jekyll rose have made an appearance - this year the rose seems to be doing the best its ever done, and that’s good to see. The rose is now about twelve years old and is in its second position in the garden as we moved it after a few years as it didn’t seem happy. I’m not sure why it’s happier now where it is, as the soil conditions probably aren’t great, but it does get a fair bit more sun. It’s happier there, and we’re happy about that too as we get to enjoy it from the house and on the patio.

The weigela above is another plant I thought I’d lost last summer, and while the lower branches rotted and have since snapped off, just a single tall stem remains and is flowering. It seems I’m now growing a ‘standard’ version of the plant, which is probably the only one in the country!

My pink jasmine was getting unwieldly in its pot, and so I braved it and cut it back not quite to the soil level but close enough. It too is starting to come back, but it’s given the self-sown everlasting sweet peas a chance to thrive. Again I’m pleased about this as this is one of the pots we’ll be taking with us when we (finally) move (still no real news on that front).

The wild strawberries which have come in from next door are also happily creeping towards the edge of the border and the lawn, and are being persuaded this isn’t a good move for them. Our strawberry plants in troughs and dotted around the garden are also doing well and have small fruits emerging. We’ll see if we manage to get to any of these before our garden wildlife - I’m not really holding out much hope though.

I’d put the redcurrant plant behind the greenhouse last summer as it really was just twigs. I cut it back a bit and thought it would be one for the compost heap at some point, and promptly forgot about it. But plants are resilient things, and while clearing around the greenhouse I noticed all its new leaves, so maybe we’ll be lucky and get fruits again next year - I think it’s just too lush and sappy to do much this year, but I’m happy to be proven wrong.

Throughout the garden there is new growth, I think that’s really the message for my garden this month - I feel like I’ve typed them in many times in this post already - but after a long, cold and wet winter, it really is so good to see.

The geraniums are flowering in their pot, and the potted heuchera is also throwing up flower stems, they’ve yet to open but we don’t often see these, so we’re watching to see what they do.

There’s definitely more pink and purple in the garden now. As well as the plants I’ve shown I also have several clumps of pink flowering oxalis, some tall purple wort-like plants, aquilegias and Canterbury bells. Our camellia is also still trying to flower with the occasional red bud appearing briefly before it remembers itself.

While I said there was no real news on the house front, we are starting to prepare the garden for a move if it were to take place. Thinking about which pots we are taking, and how they and the plants will travel - should we prune them ahead of the move or not. Clearly that’s not so much of an issue for the pots with bedding plants in, or the mint - I think I’ll cut those down to make them easier to move, and so that the plants I don’t want to be damaged can get all the attention.

We’re freeing the garden ornaments we’re taking too, the zinc pots and planters that were on the patio have been moved to the greenhouse, so that the plants can grow back where they were and avoid any unsightly gaps. I also reclaimed my green wooden obelisk from the rear border, where the ivy was trying to claim it as its own.

As you can see the ivy was doing that quite successfully, and the obelisk is looking a little sorry for itself. We’ll still be taking it with us but it’s definitely earmarked as a project for MOH’s workbench when he has space to get this up and working - you’ll be seeing this again at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later!

Eight new cards for Spring - and a giveaway for UK postal addresses

*** This giveaway is now closed, thank you to those who entered ***

I’ve been subscribing to the The Card Boys quarterly card subscription box for over a year now and received my fifth box from them at the start of the month. As it goes I also received my sixth box from them pretty soon after as there had been a small hiccup as I received a duplicate of the winter box. I mean they’re great cards, but I didn’t need another box of the same and of course I was keen to see the designs in the spring box.

The Card Boys resolved this super quickly and the spring box was with me the next day - which given how temperamental the post can be at times is pretty impressive. They also said they were happy for me to share the box with someone who would enjoy it, and so at the end of this post that’s exactly what I’m doing.

The giveaway will be a simple one - you’ll only need to leave a comment on this post and enter using the widget, but please remember I will only be posting the winter box to a UK postal address, so apologies if you aren’t in the UK. The winner will obviously need to provide their UK postal address so that I can post their prize to them.

For details of how to enter please see the ‘How to enter’ section further down in this post.

But first let’s take a look at the cards for spring:

First up is what turned out to be a timely inclusion with the recent passing of the legend Tina Turner, and a play on her Simply the Best, and something that I’m sure all prawns (or shrimps) feel, or should do. But going back to Tina briefly, it’s easy to forget just how remarkable her life and career was, and how much of a difference she made for so many people.

ARTIST: GRACE CHILTON

Next up is a simply drawn bunch of flowers by Hollie Fuller - what I like about these cards is they often have many uses and can be used for any number of occasions. There’s often a thank you card in the box, and that’s great as I know it’s great to receive thanks, and even better if the card it arrives with is gorgeous too.

ARTIST: HOLLIE FULLER

ARTIST: FLORA DUKE

ARTIST: CAROLINE SPELMAN

Flowers regularly feature in the designs and this box is no different. I like the variation in styles the different artists have, though if pushed I think I’d select the image above as my favourite floral image - I love the drama, and the colour.

ARTIST: GRACIE GERSTMAN

ARTIST: CLARA BOOTH

The final two cards are again different in style - there’s the beach finds one above, which is nice and calming and my favourite of the whole box, the vibrant jungle cheetah - or what I think is a cheetah anyway!

ARTIST: NOOR BALBAA

Edited to add: And one more

The more observant will have spotted that I originally posted this with only seven cards. The final card is added below. I hadn’t noticed that there was a card missing from the box when I photographed them yesterday, but there was and MOH thought he’d be rumbled yesterday - but wasn’t.

It’s my birthday today, and it seems I have a convert to the cards! He said these are much nicer than the ones we can buy in our local small supermarket, and he knows I like nice cards. And nice tins. He’s not wrong on either front!

And so I discovered the eighth card was missing, but for the best reasons!

ARTIST: NICKY LAWRENCE

The trouble as ever is parting with these cards, but also knowing that when you do they’re appreciated by the recipient too. So another great box from The Card Boys, I’m glad I discovered them at last year’s Grand Designs and I’m certain I’ll be continuing my subscription.

How to enter

As I said at the start of this post I received a duplicate winter box in a delivery hiccup, which I will post to a UK winner once this giveaway closes. To enter the giveaway please leave a comment on this blog post telling me how receiving ‘happy post’ makes you feel - and by happy post, I mean not the bills or everyday drudgery such as junk mail etc.

It’s that simple, but please remember I will only be posting to a UK postal address, and I will obviously ask the winner to provide their UK address so they can receive the prize.

Giveaway (for UK postal addresses only): Receive my duplicate winter Card Boys subscription box

The winner will be contacted by email on 5 June.

The prize

You can see details of the cards included in the winter subscription box on my post from earlier this year: Eight cards to brighten a wintery day, they are also included in the short video below.

Contents of the winter subscription box from The Card Boys, the prize in this giveaway.