Chelsea - which are your favourite gardens?

I am new to gardening this is my second year and still have lots to do to get my garden how i want it,

I've enjoyed watching the show and watched both programmes, it is all spick and span but i am finding myself going down that route myself,

Its all down to personal choice at the end of the day, some lovely displays including veg gardens great displays for the queen and a few ideas ive liked that could be put in place in my garden on a smaller scale.

 

There is so much to learn isn't there Martin? You are a relative beginner but I can see from your pictures that you have quite a good eye for design already. I loved your sleeper beds. I designed a garden using old sleepers as there was a bank that needed retaining. It worked and looks good. I like the heavy wood look which you also have an eye for. The plant knowledge is slow to grow. I have been at it for over 40 years and still don't know much. I find that watching the real experts at work is a great teacher.

 

To me there's lots to learn from watching Chelsea, I'm relatively young no nothing about gardening always looking for ideas I can put my own little twist on,

Would love to see your sleeper work ,

Many thanks , i work with wood and have a eye to what I think looks good just adding a few different contrasts make all the difference to me,

But at the end of the day each to there own I can see why some peeps don't like it there not your everyday gardens,

Here's a fire surround I made for my own home a few years ago I burnt it then sanded and oiled it, I think it looks great but not everyone will agree personal choice and it has to be respected , but I am sure you will like it RW you appear to like strange wood designs giving me credit that you have many thanks .

 

Me too. Much nicer than varnish.
I made 50 metres of skirting board for our cottage - stained, sealed and waxed.

 

Hi Martin,

You've done it again, that is gorgeous. It looks like marble

 

I would love a cottage, now if I could afford one I would have to have a messy ish garden maybe one day

Thank you Anthony .

 

Really nice fire surround and mantlepiece, martin-f.

I am having the opportunity of designing three gardens as part of conversion work of some old buildings. Others have done a lot of the work including all of the heavy work, under my direction. The first is my own garden and I have loved doing the Med garden. The second was next door and the one with the sleeper work. Stupidly I did not take pictures! Too busy at the time. Now people are living in the house. I will try to take some pictures if I am not too embarrassed to ask.

 

You're a bloke: 'nuff said

 

I watched the link which was posted and I watched the highlights show (sorry, too busy to have watched the lot throughout the week )

While I do agree that the focus is predominantly on the designer (and to be able to create a show garden would certainly cost a very pretty penny) it shouldn't be surprising really: it's all about promotion

But I also agree that if you are a humble gardener, toiling away in your own soil (or a small scale commercial gardener) then of course, it would be the plants which are the priority focus.

It's a juggling act, but I do think they try to achieve a balance (of sorts anyway )

I absolutely loved the Apothecary Garden: the reflexology pathway, the sensory planting; lovely!
I also loved the God's Own County Garden - what wasn't to like? But, a bit large for my own humble patch
Can't remember the name of it but the Clockwork Garden did make me chuckle! Most impractical for the common man, but I can still imagine someone with money to burn having that as a novelty garden somewhere amid their acres of land. It has made me wonder if there might be a scaled down element I could incorporate some how, somewhere in my own little patch for when grandchildren start arriving ... maybe just a little train set mapped out around some planting ... or maybe ... I'll just stick to pinwheels for motion. It doesn't matter really: it was fun!

Plant wise? Was there anything which made me want to drag Mr "M" out of his comfy chair, haul him over to garden centres, hold a gun against his head, order him to whip out his wallet and splash the cash or die? Meh! But if you start talking the "What's looking exotic" thread and the desire to "invest" .... suffice to say Mr "M" had better watch out I have a glue gun and I know how to use it