Here’s a show with a difference! It is an RHS show, so gardens are assessed and judged to the normal RHS criteria but the show is run in conjunction with the BBC so there is show biz glitz and celebrities are everywhere.
I explored this year’s show gardens hunting for some inspiring hard landscaping ideas that would be easy to recreate. I had to look hard, with many gardens offering minimal hard landscaping and masses of plants, especially vegetables, with paving being replaced in some by grass, chamomile and even a purple carpet! Some though had paving that got me thinking.
I loved all the levels of hard landscaping in the ‘Help for Heroes’ garden by Birmingham City Council, with raised beds, built in stone seats and areas for pebbles and pots. For added luxury, wouldn’t that look wonderful with Tobermore’s Pietra Granite steps for all the copings and seats?
Many designers had used a variety of different sizes and colours of paving mixed with decorative gravels or chippings, which would be easy to recreate with the Tobermore Mayfair range of products.
Whilst browsing the Tobermore catalogue I discovered the Tactile paving flags which are great to help blind and partially sighted people, and would have been brilliant in the garden I built at the show for ‘Guide Dogs’. Those simple raised patterns are not only practical but very attractive and I can imagine all kinds of exciting designs that they could be used for in gardens as well as public areas.
The fabulous garden awarded the title Best in Show was ‘A Stick in Time’, by Girl Guiding Staffordshire. It was pure genius in its simplicity. To recreate a similar look at home, you could use Tobermore Logstone to make a walkway between generous borders packed with meadow flowers. The log paving looks really good in the vegetable garden and shade garden too.