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Designer Gardens at Chelsea

• Message 1. 

  Posted by pandorab (U13975549) on Wednesday, 20th May 2009

  I am writing to let you know that we do not agree with this years show. I may have been gardening since I was eight but I can no longer relate
  to the designs of recent years and how these designs relate to my peers.
  
  I only have a modest plot and find it difficult to envisage how the gardens at this year's show can be grown and delivered to give an impression and a shimmer. It's time to change the theme to the natural countryside and to stop using material
  that can not be found in our natural surrounds.
  
  I have tried till I am low to create a garden that will grow but I cannot see what these designer gardens do for me and I believe this flower show should go back to blooms we know
  and forget the concrete jungle we live in.
  
  Please have a category that cannot have hard landscaping just as we the ordinary people garden!

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by omegaLexa (U7472510) on Wednesday, 20th May 2009

  They don't do anything for me either. I much preferred to see the small gardens which are full of plants and not concrete, stone or metal.

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by the cycling gardener (U2350416) on Wednesday, 20th May 2009

  I was at Chelsea yesterday and the large show gardens are not full of concrete, stone and metal. What a simplification. The planting schemes in particular are exquisite and I will be taking away many ideas. Of course, we can't replicate these gardens. They are show gardens by designers at the top of their profession who use the CFS (the gold standard gardening event) to showcase their design capabilities. We don't all go around in expensive designer dresses as seen on the catwalk but M & S, Primark etc take ideas from them and convert them into affordable versions that we can all afford. We can take the same approach with our gardens.

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by Paul N (U6451125) on Wednesday, 20th May 2009

  ...and as Alan said last night, most of our viewers prefer the cottage style of gardens anyway. I certainly do.
  
  It reminds me of the TV programme 'Grand Designs' where homes are created with acres of triple-glazed glass, stainless steel, steel girders and mirrors, which results in ghastly stark places where people apparently live. Nothing homely about them whatsoever.

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• Message 5

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  Posted by Obelixx (U2157162) on Wednesday, 20th May 2009

  I can't afford expensive pavillions or slabs of Tuscan rock or fancy water features either but I am planning to emulate some of the luscious purple and burgundy colour combinations in that Italian chap's garden and some other bits of planting I've seen in other gardens.
  
  Chelsea should be enjoyed for the spectacle, the excellence and the beauty of the plants and gardens and the impetus these give us to tweak and improve our own corner of landscape be it a window box, courtyard, back yard or a garden of any size.

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• Message 6

  , in reply to message 5.

  Posted by Sparky (U6716422) on Wednesday, 20th May 2009

  I don't find the big show gardens the least bit inspiring. Its all about the hard landscaping.
  
  On the other hand, the small courtyard gardens are usually lovely. Much more interesting. The flower pavillion and information on new plants etc. is also very useful. Prefer Malvern personally.

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• Message 7

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Stressed out (U11163734) on Wednesday, 20th May 2009

  As its sponsored by Marshalls then what do you expect?
  I did comment to my wife the other night that some of the architectural salvage that had been used I had seen before. And just the cost of real stone is painful.
  There are gardens at Chelsea that you would never want in your own garden but that's the point. They are only there to show you what you can do if you have plenty of money to throw at it.
  Its an ideas factory, if you don't like hard landscaping then don't have any. What you can take away is planting schemes, colours and combinations. You just have to have some imagination.

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• Message 8

  , in reply to message 7.

  Posted by GardenGnome (U4271468) on Wednesday, 20th May 2009

  Yes thats fine but, why do they insist on trying to push 'cutting edge' down our throats when it is blindingly obvious that what we (gardeners) dont care about paving, we are interested in plants.

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• Message 9

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by SilverGalanthus (U13903849) on Wednesday, 20th May 2009

  I must agree with TheCyclingGardener. This was my first visit to the Chelsea Flower Show this year and I went today, spending five hours walking around looking at all the urban, courtyard and show gardens as well as the floral pavilion and to me, it was a fantastic day out full of inspiration.
  
  The original poster seems to have overlooked all the courtyard gardens, all of which are half the size of my garden yet full of cottage planting and beautiful. My favourites were The Pilgrims Rest and The Fenland Alchemist Garden and the others, Jacob's Ladder, L'Entente Cordial, Wild and Wonderful all of them were very much in keeping with naturalistic planting, mostly using native plants, including woad, a British native that was very popular this year.
  
  The urban gardens were modern and used hard landscaping, yet did not flinch from imaginative planting either.
  
  I think the original poster is wrong about the show gardens. The Living Street garden (the one sponsored by Marshalls) was trying to present how a row of urban flats could accommodate a rich variety of planting, from vertical planting to growing veg in the front garden. The Future Nature garden was a depiction of a modern roof terrace using natural prairie planting and all the materials were recycled or re-used. It was meant to show how in the centuries to follow, as urbanisation increases (as it inevitably will do) can grow hand in hand with a love of gardening and plants.
  
  Yes, some gardens were pure indulgence such as the Cushioned Velvet and the winning Best in Show garden, but that's what Chelsea is about - to demonstrate in purely extravagant terms what can be achieved in a garden. Not only that, you can pick up plant lists for all the gardens displayed, so that even if you liked only one plant in the whole scheme, you could find out the name, grow or buy it yourself and plant wherever you want it.
  
  And lastly, the Floral Pavilion. Well if that doesn't convince you that Chelsea still has its roots in flowers, plants and foliage in all their rich diversity whilst still casting an eye on what the future holds then nothing will.
  
  I wouldn't call myself a professional gardener by any measure at the moment, but I gained a lot from visiting Chelsea today and I'll be going again next year.

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• Message 10

  , in reply to message 9.

  Posted by darren p (U8518743) on Thursday, 21st May 2009

  i thought one aspect of chelsea was to see what can be done?? not to see if we can do the same thing over and over again...

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