GARDENING SARAH EDWARDS
When press day arrives, and it is time to dress up, no more hi vis or steel toe caps! It is a long day but exhilarating day, including the Private View and Gala evening, with press photographers, journalists taking photos and asking questions about the garden. Celebrities come and go, champagne is drunk and Radio 4’s Gardener’s Question Time panel and crew call by and record a segment with me answering a listener’s question for their show coming from Chelsea. As I sit in the pub having dinner that night, my phone buzzes with friends sending pictures of my garden on the TV. It feels good to have made the opening night of coverage. The show opens to RHS Members Tuesday and Wednesday and anyone Thursday through to Sunday. During that time 168,000 people pass through the gates. A sea of floral dresses and Panama hats, cameras, picnics, Pimms and champagne, everyone loved the September show, it’s different planting palette and autumnal feel.
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And my garden? As a designer, taking a design to a show you always hope your idea translates well and that the public ‘get it’ and love it. I can say I was overwhelmed by people’s reaction to it, how the message of how we must start repurposing everyday items once they have come to the end of their original purpose resonated with them. Everyone loved the garden, saying it was a beautiful and calming space. There was a 50/50 split on those who knew what an IBC was, and those who had never seen one before, but of course, now they will see them everywhere. All agreed it was a really clever way of repurposing them, and what was so remarkable was the fact that so many people wanted to get some IBC tanks and use them this way. It seemed to spark everyone’s creative imagination in a way I could never have imagined. From landowners to tiny back yards, rich or poor, schools and community projects all wanted to embrace the repurposing of IBC’s.
I knew from my last show garden that during the show you will get asked the same few questions repeatedly, which I always find interesting, and this time was no different.
This time they were: Q: How long will the birch grow in the container for? A: The pot it was grown in was 150L and now it is in a 750L container, so if watered properly (irrigation system would be best) it will be perfectly happy with a good mulch annually, and will eventually stop growing, but not die, when it fills the pot.
NOVEMBER 2021 - THINGS TO DO:
New Moon - November 4th 21.15pm Full Moon - November 19th 8.57am
Plant tulips after first frosts Lift and store dahlias and cannas somewhere cool and dry
PLANT OF THE MONTH – FERNS
Ferns are often evergreen or semi ever- green and are fantastic plants going into winter, with a large range different frond type they add great texture to a garden
Dryopteris erythrosora
This fern, known as the autumn fern, has new frond unfurling in warm coppery tones which fade to green as they mature. Combined with the fiery Carex testacea 'Prairie Fire' they were the stars in my show garden and gave the garden a warm autumnal feel.
Q: what is the mini bullrush? A: Typha gracilis. Q: What is the plant with red berries? A: Viburnum opulus
Q: How do you stop the pond water going green? A: have oxygenating plants, removing decaying plant matter like leaves, and covering 75% of the surface with surface plants like waterlilies, especially if in full sun.
As the crowds dwindled on the Sunday evening, my fellow Container Garden Designers and I took time to reflect and were tinged with sadness that it was nearly all over and that the gardens would be taken apart the next day. A few tears were shed. Before I left that night, I pulled out the first plant and the magic was broken, ready for a long and wet day taking the garden apart and getting it all back to Hereford, amid the fuel crisis, which made things interesting!
It got unloaded at 9.30pm that night, and that was it, it was all over. The plants and trees are in waiting to get re-used in my Foley Community Garden project later in the year.
On reflection, everyone has been so wonderful about the garden. The show team were thrilled with it, my mentor fell in love with my planting so much so that he wants me on his planting team for his Chelsea Main Avenue Garden next year. Although not judged, I chatted to some judges, who judged my Malvern Garden, and they were very positive about it. I had a lot of press coverage and so I see it as a great success, and I am proud of what I achieved. Would I do it again? Of course, I will!
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