Five take away ideas from RHS Hampton Court

I visited the show on Thursday and was incredibly lucky with the weather, it being the only dry day of the week. The sun shone and the festival looked lovely. Compared with recent years, I felt it was very colourful, with vibrant displays. I particularly liked the small pocket plantings which were showcasing climate-resilient ideas. Later in the day, I gave a talk on ‘Five steps to a more resilient garden and allotment’ which went down well and fair few books were purchased. A big thanks to the RHS for inviting me to speak.

My take away ideas:

1. My favourite had to be the Edible Garden at Berkeley Castle because of the choice of edibles. I don’t recall seeing medlars and pineapple guava (Acca sellowiana) being featured in display gardens before. So, I was really pleased to see them in this garden, along with oysterleaf (Mertensia maritima) which is a trailing plant with grey/green leaves and small blue flowers. I can thoroughly recommend visiting Berkeley Castle on the Severn, where the kitchen garden is delightful.

Pineapple guava is a really easy shrub to grow. Its a hardy, evergreen with attractive edible red flowers and produces small, green edible fruits. I have two planted in a sunny border, sheltered behind by a hornbeam hedge. But I have yet to see a fruit. I have grown oysterleaf to many years. I find getting it to overwinter can be tricky, but once its away in spring it produces trailing stems and lots of attractive, small bell shaped flowers that are visited by bees. It’s favoured by chefs because of its taste, but I find it more of an oily, fishy taste than one of oysters though!

Pineapple guava with attractive red flowers

2. Another simple idea from these pocket plantings was this bundle of twigs. It was on the Our Forgotten Neighbours: Growing Resilience with Food Forests.  By bundling the twigs in a leather strap, it looks designed, but is still functional as a minibeast habitat. And look carefully at the plants around it – such a varied mix – wild strawberry, amaranth, fennel, kale, and tree spinach plus there’s a corten steel container packed more edibles.

Just remember that the pretty tree spinach with its magenta tinged leaves is a vigorous plant that will quick reach one to two metres in height, even if you keep picking it. It produces a copious amount of seed, so you will never have to sow it again! I would attach the same caveat to amaranth!!

3. There was more corten steel on the Britain in Bloom 60th Anniversary garden.  I liked the free-standing container full of water that’s so important for attracting more wildlife into a garden. The tropical planting behind was fun too, with the rich colours of the bananas Musa ‘Ever Red’ and Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’

4. If you are looking for some new veg to grow next year, have a look at the offering of Joy and Michael Michaud of Sea Spring Seeds. Their small display was packed with ideas. They are based near Chesil Beach in Dorset and for many years focused on growing chilli, creating the Dorset Naga. But recently, they have expanded their vegetable seed list which now includes traditional, as well as exotic and unusual options. All the seeds they sell have been trialled and assessed at their nursery. If you want to know more, they are running tours of the nursery in August. Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens are just down the road so you could do both on the same day.

5.  And finally, I loved the allotment garden created by Year Two of Bagshot Infant School which won Best Allotment Garden. I had a long chat with the Steve Barker, a school governor and some of the pupils manning the stand. All the plants were grown by the children under the guidance of Steve, who is a keen vegetable grower himself and it’s such a brilliant example of how children can be introduced to growing at an early stage in life – the allotment at the school is accessible to children with special needs and disability, which makes it such an important inclusive space. None of the produce goes to waste. During the school holidays, the allotments are looked after and produce is used to make chutneys and jams which they sell to raise money to buy seeds, plus they have solar panels to pump water, upcycled pallets, recycled containers and bricks and more. It is a truly inspiring project and I really wish more schools could have the funding to set up similar gardening / growing spaces. It’s so important to get children involved with their food, getting their hands dirty and understanding how a seed can turn into a carrot or parsnip.

Here are a few ideas from their plot, including the pallet herb garden and the watercress tank.