Nick Bailey's Plant-Based Garden

August 28, 2025

* I was invited to this year’s Gardeners’ World Live and provided with a pair of tickets to the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

I said in my highlights post from the show that I was looking forward to seeing how Nick Bailey would incorporate the #MakeAMetre matter initiative into his garden, and how successful it was and today I’m sharing some of the many pictures I took of the garden.

Dense prairie style planting in the foreground with the seating area in the background

Three instances of the dark roof shaped structure repeating through the garden among the raised beds

The garden features a cluster of Douglas fir buildings and structures in the style of a traditional homestead, and it was the repeating shapes of the frames that made the garden such a success for me. They brought height to the space and their bold charred wood certainly brought impact.

The narrow bricked path forming a 'central corridor' through the garden's planting, ponds and seating areas

The buildings included a Burnt-Out Barn with grape vines overhead and dining below, the Brassicarium for protection for edibles, and the Roofed Barn seating area (below) which overlooked the ponds and a meadow-matrix perennial grass planting. And if you look closely there’s patchwork throws over the chairs too.

The open but covered seating area with cosy chairs, patchwork throws and a game of chess

Lush green planting growing alongside one of the buildings softening its shape

Long term readers will know that I like a structured and ordered veg plot, but never have I heard of a Brassicarium, and I wish I had - isn’t it a great word?

The brassicarium complete with kale and cabbages

The vegetable raised beds but with some plants - such as a bronze fennel - growing in the path

I liked that the planting was at different levels, and even the raised beds varied in height which I think helped this garden feel more like an established garden. The other thing that was a nice touch was the plants that had ‘crept’ over their borders softening the paths.

Even the sage that seemingly had ‘escaped’ the show garden’s boundaries.

An escaped purple sage growing under the show garden's rope border

I was also a fan of the compost bins, though I’m not sure I’d have placed them this close to the dining area in a real life garden, but the open and stackable concept was good. So much so that I became a little obsessed with how they were built.

Two open compost bins made from squares of wood, with the dining area behind

Down at ground level looking at the construction of the compost bins

Looking closely and by poking a finger in the gap it seems they were simply stacked on top of each other. And that dark wood was newly charred as my grubby finger attested to!

They definitely gave me food for thought for my own garden, though they may be over engineered for what I need, but they do show that compost bins don’t need to be the ugly plastic daleks!

The view across the vegetable raised beds - from the compost bins

I loved this garden, and it wasn’t just the structures for me. The concept of one square metre, the dense planting, mixing edibles with flowers, the informality of it all made it a great space, and I hope it has a longer term home - it deserves it.

What do you think?

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was quite a show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did the show.

Gardening in 2050?

August 21, 2025

As I stepped into the shed, which was the entrance to this garden, I knew I was going to like it. They say first impressions count, and this to do list (who doesn’t love a list?!) and mix of vintage items, along with the humour had me hooked. Entering through a shed was definitely a point of difference so hats off to the garden’s designer Vivien Mosely, and of course to The Botanical Gardener who brought the design to life.

A handwritten to do list on a blackboard

Black walls in the shed entrance to the garden with vintage tools and pots hanging on the wall/shelves

Another view - straight on - of the vintage shelving tools & pots

The garden offers a glimpse into the future, so the blurb said.

It’s set in 25 years time, where water resources are limited and the landscape is parched. Which unfortunately may be a realistic outlook if this summer and it’s four heatwaves (so far) are anything to go by, unless we get better at capturing water, as there was certainly plenty of it about in the first few months of the year.

But also, 2050 is 25 years away - surely 2050 is in a future space age, not within actual reach. We can all remember 25 years in the past (well, if we’re old enough to) and often it’s forty years ago that feels like it was much closer.

But anyway back to the garden.

An old municipal type water fountain filled with succulents, with the seating area beyond

2050 is a garden that invites visitors to consider how gardening will change, and what plant species we can plant in our gardens today that will also thrive in the future. And my own increasing addiction to succulents isn’t lost on me either, here they’re used in a stunning and dramatic way to replace the ‘lost’ water.

A closer look at the bulbs and succulent planting in the fountain

Looking across the floaty planting of grasses to the seating area

By using derelict artefacts and features evoking a sense of nostalgia the garden reminds us that we don’t miss the water until the well runs dry, but also that we can create something beautiful as we adapt to the changing climate.

There’s definitely something to think about there, and how we adapt our planting now, whether we do that consciously, or sub-consciously as the garden centres change their offering looking towards the longer-term.

And this garden shows, it can still be beautiful and attractive. I’m not one for a water feature in the garden, but a fountain of succulents, now that would be something else wouldn’t it?

The slightly sunken seating area, edged with dark bricks and surrounded by planting including splurge and red hot pokers

Looking more closely at the planting around the seating area, topped with gravel

While at the show I was keen to eye up seating areas, especially those that might be on gravel. And this one delivered all of that. It’s something I’d been thinking about for our garden here - though I’m not sure if the gravel would work in reality. It’d be like walking across lego once you’d kicked back and kicked off your flip flops wouldn’t it?

Stepping back to admire the sunken seated area, a potential firepit and the planting

I like the architectural detail around the sunken seating area, and spent quite a while thinking if a sunken area could work in our garden. Then I realised it would probably annoy me, and make me feel constrained, and that along with the prospect of finding much builder’s rubble consigned the idea for our garden to history!

But it doesn’t make me love this garden any less, what do you think?

The 'New' Build Garden

July 17, 2025

Knowing where to start with my individual garden appreciation posts from this year’s show was quite the challenge. I shared my highlights from around the show, and I expect you thought I’d start by sharing either the ‘Best in Show’ Where there’s water, there’s life garden or Nick Bailey’s Plant-based garden, but in fact I’ve chosen neither of of those (though they are on my list to share).

I have as you can see from the title of this post chosen to start with The ‘New’ Build garden, as it was more than you’d expect it to be, and in fact we’ve been lucky with our new build garden being more than we expected it to be too.

This garden was designed by brother and sister designers, Henry and Lucie Ponsford at Mimosa Design. Their garden transforms new build home gardens into lush, sustainable retreats by blending repurposed waste materials with ancient crafts, and offering luxury without compromise.

The eco-hot tub in the foreground and black shed at the rear - both surrounded with planting

Knowing this I was still quite surprised to see an hot tub, albeit an eco one, in the garden alongside the handcrafted hut, but as the blurb on the board said it’s purpose is to ‘show that style and sustainability can coexist.’

I’m all for that.

They have aimed to reduce landfill impact by using intelligent and creative solutions, such as fast-install permeable paving and soil-relocating gabions - you’ll recall I was rather taken with these.

One of the triangular gabions complete with slabs on a diagonal with planting above and surrounding the structure

But it wasn’t just the angular gabions that I liked in this garden - though filling them with old paving slabs stacked on an angle was a great idea and a great way to bring even more texture into the space. There was another use for old paving slabs, that might not have been immediately apparent.

The triangular sections in the paths were also old paving slabs cut into narrower strips then inserted into the permeable path on their ends to give this effect. Simple (in design if not necessarily to replicate), but very effective, don’t you think?

Looking down to the triangular upended slabs inserted into the gravel-like path

There’s gutters at ground level as attractive solutions to channel and gather water - something we all probably need to do more of, and with the inclusion of astrantias in the planting I was always going to stop by to learn more about the garden.

The gutters leading to a triangular 'pond' with the wooden pammits used on the path on show, planting of grasses in the foreground

I can see how the gutters at ground level could work and bring both calmness and a practical solution to the garden, but I’m still in two minds about water elements in gardens and the need for keeping them clean easily. I’m all for water storage though, as these past few weeks (and actually months) has shown, we need to do more to conserve rainwater when it comes.

And those angular gabions amongst all of the other angles are designed to reflect a landscape on a precipice, but still allow the garden to become a sanctuary for people, water and plants. And through their designs they’ve demonstrated that new builds can connect us more deeply to nature than you’d think, and don’t have to be the standard ‘square of grass’ left by the developer (if you’re lucky).

A double layer of triangular gabions with the eco-hot tub in the background

A taller angled gabion this time - still planted, but with a rowan tree in front providing height in the garden

And I agree, they’ve definitely shown that style and sustainability can work together. The permeable walkways were something we spoke to the garden representatives about, and while I’m keen to have something permeable we don’t think these are for us. In this garden they’ve added the wooden cobbles in ‘high traffic’ areas as the surrounding surface could be muddier than you’d like after rainfall, something to consider as I definitely don’t want muddy footprints in the house.

gutters, gabions and a focus on the triangular bed planted with textural plants