Recently, I visited the Kent Autumn Garden Show for the first time. I thought that it was excellent. The show is held at the Detling Showground which is near Maidstone and it has everything a gardener would want. It’s organised by WMH Leisure (www.wmhleisure.com) and they also organise the Kent Garden Show in May each year.
To give you a chance to have a look at the show, I made this short film.
I just had to get a photo of this bus! It belongs to Martin Stevens who I met at the Kent Autumn Garden Show. Martin’s company is called G.S Stevens and the business is based in Sittingbourne. Martin has a wealth of experience in garden machinery and he has an amazing knowledge of the products currently available in today’s market. If you visit his website www.gcstevens.co.uk you will find some great Autumnal special offers.
I really like Heucheras and I want to use them in a design that I‘m currently working on. At the Kent Autumn Garden Show, I got the opportunity talk to Sean Atkinson from www.heucheraholics.co.uk and he is an expert on this fascinating plant.
This is my first show garden at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. I applied in 2007 for the 2008 show, but I was too young! So now at the grand age of 16, I am realising my dream.
I wanted to design an exotic garden and I think I have captured that with this garden- “A Desert’s Delight”. When entering the garden you are in a desert, with barren land and planting, the path meanders past a bedouin tent offering respite from the blazing sun. The moon gate in the wall transports the weary traveller into a calming tranquill oasis, lush with exotic planting from around the world. A stilted house captures the cooling breezes and offers a comfortable area to sit and contemplate while listening to the sound of trickling water which soothes the mind and cools the atmosphere.
I got some great comments from visitors to the show and my garden was the biggest show garden this year!
This is my second show garden at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show. Last year, I won a bronze medal for my Ornamental Hurst Show Garden. The title of my design this year is “Not any Garden, My Grandma’s”.
My Grandmother sadly passed away a few months ago. This garden design is for her.
Nanny Dunckley suffered from Dementia. When she was a young girl, she worked in her father’s florist shop. Before her illness she used to love gardening too. I have featured some of her favourites such as Marguerites and herbs (rosemary, lavender and thyme) which have associations for the treatment of the illness together with flowers to be sold in the shop. The shop is based on a real working florist set in the late 1930’s in a rural village.
The design is of circles within circles and features two matching borders of perennials and bedding plants. Two symmetrical ponds are set into paving in front of the shop, containing a variety of marginal pond plants. There are three cherry trees (Prunus “Kanzan”) behind the shop.
Thank you for looking at my site. 2010 has been a very exciting year for me and I thought that I would create my own video site to share some of my best moments with you.
Please email me with your thoughts, comments or any questions you might have about my designs.
