RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2007 - Hot colours liven up cloudy skies at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

The mixed weather did nothing to dampen the spirits on press day at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. This is the 18th year of the popular show and despite cloudy skies it does not disappoint.

Always a favourite with me, Hampton once again produces some outstanding gardens, vibrant colours, exciting and unusual ideas and this year lots to stimulate and involve children with gardens designed by and for our younger horticulturists. In fact gardens and play areas for young people feature prominently in the medals this year and it’s good to see the RHS taking a leading role in encouraging our younger gardeners both as consumers and creators of gardens.

The sheer size of the site at Hampton Court gives lots of space for some wonderful gardens. There are several you can actually walk virtually right round and there is so much to see from a variety of angles that if you don’t spend time really looking at them you can miss a lot.

For the wow factor, it's that man Chris Beardshaw again with his ‘The Growing Schools Garden (pictured above & below) – learning outside the Classroom’ (Gold and Tudor Rose Award for Best Show Garden.) Sponsored by the Department for Education and Skills, the garden is designed to show how teaching and learning can take place outside the classroom, within the school grounds and in a wide variety of places beyond the school.

Chris is well known for all the work he does with young people both in encouraging them into horticulture and gardening and involving them in gardening projects.

There is just so much to see in this garden – it's huge – and there are several different aspects to ponder over, from the vibrant planting areas to the vegetable plots at the back, the little leaf shaped wooden seats and the play areas with the wild grasses and giant wooden spider climbing up the wall (pictured below). A number of local schools have been involved in creating artworks and features for the garden and a proportion of the plant material which reflects the variety of uses, in the botanical world, including culinary plants, medicinal plants and plants to encourage wildlife. It's just a whole lot of fun and is going to be one of the hot spots for the show this year.

The theme of children and gardening is also highlighted in the Best Small Show Garden which is awarded to Alton Infant School for their 'Learning to Look After Our World' (Gold).

Learning to Look after our World Garden - designer wellies!

A delightful garden, in which the whole school community - teachers, parents and children - have all contributed to bring us a taste of their school gardens. There is a wild area, a vegetable and fruit garden and sensory garden, all designed for education and fun.

We loved the little planted wellingtons (pictured left) and the scarecrows – again so much to see in such a small space and a whole lot of fun, which is what gardening should be about.

'The Torres Tapas Garden' (Silver Flora) will cheer up the mood on even the dullest day. (pictured below)

Here is a wonderful taste of the Mediterranean with its vineyard, vegetables and vines, lovely wooden structures and little features which entertain if you don't miss them.

The clever use of wooden wine boxes for planters, the ladder against the vine tree leading us to feel that the vineyard worker has just nipped out for a glass of wine, the Gaudi-inspired mosaic paintwork and shell pathways and the tiny, tiny little cross and pebble with the carving 'Pedro' on it! (pictured right) Who Pedro is we aren’t sure but one suspects this is just the Torres people having a bit of fun, and why not, what a stunning garden.

Once again Southend-on-Sea Borough Council bring us another delightful garden with 'The Miller's Garden' (Silver) featuring a water mill sitting in its fields of barley, corn cockle and cornflowers, with its vegetable patch and peaceful cottage garden border, a riot of colour and a lovely nostalgic reflection of a time when life was just that bit quieter and laid-back. (pictured below) Really one of my favourites this – probably because I am a soft touch for the nostalgia, but I think this is really a fab garden.

I also liked 'No.27 the Ruin on the Corner' (Bronze) designed by Keppel Nowson showing as it does the stark differences and similarities between the man-made and the natural and the speed at which nature reclaims man-made construction. (pictured below)

'Playscape' (Gold) designed by Adam White & Andree Davies for the Groundwork Foundation is an imaginative playground with a more natural place to play. This really is an inspirational garden and leads the way in forward thinking about how effectively we could use our play spaces with grassy mounds and creative planting.

'The Homebase Garden of Reflections' (Gold) designed by Thomas Hoblyn Design Agency, is aimed at a young couple living in a town house and turns a modest outdoor area into an extra living space. (pictured above) Although based on the 16th century Italian garden Villa Lante, it has a fresh and contemporary feel to it with blues, purples and lime green colours and also reflects that the couple are environmentally aware as rainwater is collected and filtered from the house roof.

There are some interesting water features to catch the eye this year. 'The Green & Light Garden' (Silver-Gilt) - Helen Williams Garden Design (pictured above) - is designed to complement a town house of a professional couple. In one corner is a wooden arch from which are suspended two chains down which there is a tiny trickle of water - hardly perceptible, so much so you have to look twice - but very effective. 'Growing Together' (Silver-Gilt) - designed by Fiona Stephenson - uses steel as a common decorative material throughout the garden which combines with water to give a cool effect especially the water curtain moon-gate at the back.

‘Life Long Living' (Bronze) designed by Alison Page, Rachel Prior and Toni Rae for Beechcroft Developments, is inspired by the needs of retired living and effective use of communal gardens which can stimulate the senses and a feeling of well-being (pictured above). Six mature trees frame the garden which has a little river running across the front to reflect both the untamed waterside and the cultivated garden bank. The garden also features the Rose of the Year 2008 - Rosa 'Sweet Haze' - which is being sold to support the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

I also liked 'The Chase Secret Garden' (Bronze) designed by Maxine Sims, Rosie Yeoman and Leonard Lyons-Davies (pictured above). A walled garden with its wild, overgrown appearance and hidden corners with scrambling clematis, roses and tiny neglected garden pond.

The Daily Mail Pavilion (pictured above) this year is one of the best I have ever seen. Again it might be the nostalgia kick but Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants 'Kentish Oast House Garden' (Gold) – designed by Rosemary Hardy - is just superb and 'The Village Post Office, Garage & Market Garden' (Gold) designed by Audrey Daw, Mary Payne and Jon Wheatley, took me right back to my childhood. The theme of the pavilion is The Darling Buds of May and takes us back to sunny Kentish days of the 1950s. There are even live pigs and chickens and a Cricket Pitch.

This is the second year of the Conceptual Gardens category and the entries this year are quite outstanding. The aim of this category is to challenge perceptions and stimulate the imagination in garden, so pushing the boundaries which the five gardens on display certainly did. The Best in Category went to Tony Smith for his 'In Digestion' (Gold) an absolutely outstanding design which uses 4.1 million lettuce seedlings to create the most stunning green you have ever seen surrounding white blocks through which run planted sections (the digestive tract). There is quite a deep meaning to this garden and Tony's interpretation is amazing. (pictured above right)

I also liked Rik Godfrey's 'After Malevich - The Garden of Non-Objectivity' (Silver). This garden prevents us from reading the physical form of a plant by shielding its true nature. You are stimulated to react to the garden on an emotional basis rather than an intellectual one appreciating colour, reflection, movement and light and shadow. 'The Fallen' designed by Sim Flemons & John Warland to highlight the plight of our native wildflowers also won Gold. This takes the form of a cemetery created with Portland headstones each representing a threatened plant.

So much to see, so much to do and we haven't even been in the floral marquees yet so it's off to look at those and try and catch one of the performances at the 'Catwalk in Bloom', sponsored by Offset Someplace Else.

This is another new feature at the show this year and includes a Plant Show hosted by ITV Celebrity gardener David Domoney and exclusive fashion shows hosted by Clive Holland. You also get to sit down after all that garden walking and watching - can't be bad!