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I still get excited by all the shows and the amount of work and devotion that goes into them is quite scary. It was great to take Mark and Suzanne from my 'Design made Easy' project up to Malvern to discuss ideas and see what kind of thing they liked for their garden - that's what the shows are all about. They had never been to one before but instantly started forging thoughts and ideas on details based around my circular scheme. We looked at a veritable smorgasbord of hard materials and styles of planting and it's given me a far clearer idea about what they want.

Now, the important thing to remember about show gardens is that they are a catwalk of ideas. Most of them aren't sustainable as the planting is overly dense and most things are in flower at the same time. It's also important not to design your garden around 'a bit of this one' and 'a bit of that one' either or you'll end up with a right old mish mash. Once you've seen a good idea try to interpret it and see if it'll work in your own garden using different plants or materials that will blend in well.

Mark and Suzanne liked the way some paving was broken up with herbs to help soften it, so that's a great idea that will work with their path, and Mark and I thought some of the structures and boundaries could double up to make a simple ball game for their kids, rather than being an off the peg play product. These are just two simple ideas we took away with us. There were many more, but I have to keep Mark and Suzanne focussed as (fortunately) they don't have room for a complete garden show with 20 designer gardens!