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back to garden shows & events index.... RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2007 From City gardens to Courtyard a and a very entertaining Roof Garden
This year, a new category, the roof garden, has been added so there is even more to stimulate and energise us when we get back home. The Best Chic Garden (Gold) was awarded to Helios designed by Kate Gould. This really is a delightful garden based on an Upstairs/Downstairs urban basement garden that provides a private and shady outdoor room. I loved its jungly planting with plants needing minimum maintenance and the relaxing use of water to provide soothing sounds. The Children's Society, 'Lust for Life' (Silver Flora) is another popular garden in this category. Designed by Angus Thompson, the garden is for an urban office worker to rest in and rejuvenate during their breaks. Angus is another newcomer to RHS Chelsea and no doubt we will be seeing more of him in the future.
The Best Courtyard Garden (pictured above) went to A.W. Gardening Services for 'The Old Gate' (Gold). I really liked this garden which reflects the troubled and worrying times that a small garden, which had been lovingly tended, was subjected to during wartime. Designers Adam Woolcott and Jonathan Smith, paint a nostalgic picture both through their use of traditional perennials and heritage vegetables.
Also in the Courtyard section (pictured above) Chris O’Donoghue shares with us his inspiration of an East Sussex holiday home with 'Shinglesea' (Silver-Gilt Flora). We are treated to an array of drought resisting plants growing happily against the side of a railway carriage which forms the background to the garden. Carefully planned and thought through this really is a delightful garden. The Harpak Group were awarded Gold and Best City Garden for 'A City Haven' based on a small sheltered garden in Moscow. Also in this category Capel Manor College's 'A garden to take tea in' (Silver Flora) appealed to me (pictured below). I thought it was warm and inviting and had lovely balanced and clean lines with low maintenance planting very suitable to a gardener with a busy lifestyle who wanted somewhere mellow to chill out at the end of the day.
Finally, the roof garden section – and Anthony Samuelson's 'Patio Povera!' (Silver-Gilt Flora). This really is a fun garden (pictured below) and deserves the best roof garden award. What a lovely man and what an imagination from someone who is 77 years old and who have never designed a garden before let alone a roof garden. We stood for ages looking at all the 'found objects' which Samuelson manages to turn into floral works of art in one way or another. The tool box which has been converted to hold a variety of sedum, the sauce bottle and the Dyson. An eclectic collection of found objects and a wonderful lesson to us in how we can liven up and entertain in our gardens by using old and discarded objects. Thanks for the entertainment Anthony it was just perfect and very 'out-there'.
(top banner - A selection of images from RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2007.) © Reckless Gardener Magazine 2005 - 2006 Mill Cottage New Media |
While the larger show gardens are always exceptional at Chelsea and wow and stun because of their sheer size, it is the smaller Courtyard, City and Chic gardens that can so often give us an idea of what we can achieve in our more humbler plots at home. 
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