Small but colourful
Post categories: Louise Danks
| 12:04 UK time, Tuesday, 8 July 2008
The main thought that struck me walking around the showground was about the small gardens and the fact that they seem to be much more modern this year, there's more colour in the hard landscaping, some very brave choices.
Andrea Fawcett-Philippart, a first-time designer at Hampton has created a Luis Barragan inspired space, (Silver-gilt), it's impossible to ignore the neon-pink wall, which, very cleverly doesn't overpower the small garden. The planting is subtle but still manages to pick up the colour of the walls.
"It's been a very steep learning curve, this is my first ever garden at a flower show, I graduated last year and it's a wonderful opportunity. I'm so excited to have received a silver-gilt on my first go!"
Andrea's rusted, mild-steel water feature runs from front to back through the garden and gently overflows, there's something mesmerising about water when it's used in this way.
I caught up with Helen Williams, the designer of (Gold); "I'm very pleased, an awful lot of work has gone into this garden, the construction team have worked particularly hard. It's surprised me how big the space looks, it's only 6m x 6m but somehow it looks much bigger, I think this is to do with the three different levels."
Helen has managed to create a beautiful garden with a restricted colour palette that is calming but not subdued, it's so inviting, one of those gardens that makes you wish you had a book and a glass of wine and that you weren't here to work!
Another small garden not afraid of colour is (Bronze). It's rendered boundary wall is a vibrant orange, not for the faint-hearted! The herbaceous planting is a veritable rainbow, delphiniums, kniphophia, hemerocallis and monarda seem to be all talking at once, I think it works because of the curved hornbeam hedge, it surrounds the planting, provides that little bit of green breathing space.
Mike Roberts, the design lecturer at Warwickshire College was impressed with the small gardens this year, "The small gardens this year are fantastic quality, I think that the plants and the workmanship is better than in some show gardens to be honest. The small gardens are where people come to get ideas and this year there are many ideas that visitors can take away rather than the big statements from the show gardens."
Warwickshire college brought a modern roof garden to the small garden category, (Silver) has a futuristic yet practical feel to it. Steel poles form a light-weight framework with planters attached, but the blinds are what did it for me (yes really!) they are made up of narrow strips which can be altered depending on where the sun is at anytime of the day.
While we're talking colour, I have to mention (Bronze) designed by Jonathan Walton with it's amazing coloured floor, blocks of eye-catching yellow, blue and green stretch like a large scale mosaic across the garden, a real statement!
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