I love this event and I’m looking forward to getting my garden just right for the general public and the judges.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the great people who are helping me to achieve my dream.

Hope to see you at the show,

All the best,
Jack

To give you a chance to have a look at the show, I made this short film.

Now is a great time to tidy up your borders, clear weeds and cut down flower stems.

Reduce your lawn mowing and clear dead leaves from the lawn. This will stop the grass turning yellow.

Lift tender perennials and tender bulbs and bring indoors.

Now’s the time you should start planning any design changes for your garden and plant your favourite spring bulbs.

Don’t forget to dry seed heads this month, before they deteriorate.

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.

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!

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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.

Here are a few photos of my show garden.

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