RHS Tatton was a fabulous show yet again this year, despite the builds suffering from the intense heatwave earlier last week (we’ve been there and it’s hard work!).
One of the standout gardens for me was the ‘Working from Home’ garden by 26-year-old Will Scholey, who achieved ‘Young Designer of the Year’, as well as a silver gilt medal. The design concept was to create a space to work from while reducing the homeowner’s carbon footprint.
The ‘daily commute’ was a winding gravel path through native meadow planting with multi-stemmed trees. The hard landscaping was all reclaimed, and there were mounds of soil retained by the York stone boulders, to ensure better drainage after heavy rainfall.
It was fantastic to see wildlife-friendly planting such as teasels, angelica, cirsium, yarrow and lots of grasses.
Throughout the whole show, there was a trend around designing gardens for working from home as well as well-being and Covid recovery. Pip Probert’s ‘Why commute’ garden also stood out through her brilliant use of plants and won a gold award.
Overall, it’s really positive to see so much native planting throughout the show – the tides have really turned away from a more formal planting style which offers very little for the environment and local ecology.
Agapanthus ‘Blue Thunder’
I was struck by this stunning variety of agapanthus which is a brilliant plant for gardens or in pots, with large drumstick flowerheads, giving architectural structure to a border. They are usually blue, pink or white, but I did spot a new purple version in the Floral Marquee called ‘Poppin Purple’.
This herbaceous perennial flowers year after year, can cope with heat and is clump forming, so can be divided every few years. This plant looks just as good as a seedhead in the autumn, as it does as the globe flowerhead throughout the summer.
Charlie outdoor ovens
I am always looking out for high quality outdoor charcoal ovens and grill. This Charlie all-in-one instantly caught my eye due to its bright colour, but it’s the spec that really sets it apart.
The tall oven looks a bit like a filing cabinet (which I have seen turned into a DIY smoker!) and is an all-in-one smoker, barbecue grill and pizza oven. The stainless steel and powder-coat steel exterior means it will happily live outdoors in the UK climate and with the right garden and landscape design, you will happily be cooking all year round!
