Two days at BBC Gardeners World Live 2019

BBC Gardeners World Live opened its doors on Thursday after one of the most challenging build-ups to the event. Lashings of rain and wind made impossible conditions for designers, landscapers, plants people, and Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

Luckily, the rain held off at the Press preview on Wednesday, enough for me to spend a  wonderful afternoon admiring what is on offer.



Let's start with my favourite show garden this year - the Watchmaker's Garden, designed by Alexandra Froggatt.

Steeped in history and reflecting Birmingham's Jewelry Quarter in Victorian times, this is a practical yet beautiful design with authenticity and attention to detail.



First of all, the building with its ghost painted sign commands attention. The front garden is a mix of Victorian heirloom vegetables to feed a family - peas, kohlrabi, beetroot, packed alongside herbs and marigolds, columbine and dahlias.

At the side and back, there's fruit trees, gooseberries, even nettles, but unusually, there was a recreation inside the house of a watchmaker's studio. No wonder this garden was awarded Best In Show and won a platinum award.

One garden you won't be able to miss is "Revelation, designed by Mike Baldwin. The sight of four large horses splashing through water is an arresting and powerful delight. which immediately poses so many questions. They're in front of some beautiful gates which lead into a series of garden rooms. Look out for the visual cues which hint at the scriptures and garden history.

I really enjoy the faithful recreation of a canal in the garden "Making life better by water from the Canal and River Trust which is designed by Chris Myers.

It may be at the NEC but this gzrden takes you to anywhere in our country's network of canals, embodying a sense of peace, tranquillity and timelessness. I also like the small vegetable and flower garden alongside, which would help sustain the lock keepers family in years past.

Talking to Alistair Barnsley, one of the charity's volunteers, I find out the boat was on a canal but needed some renovation. The volunteers borrowed it from the owner, painted it up and hey ho, it's having its moment in the limelight.

As you walk along APL Avenue, where members of the Association of Professional Landscapers showcase their designs, there's a wealth of accessible designs for small gardens. My favourite is "Home Solutions "by John Lewis garden, designed by Shaun Beale, landscape manager at the company's Leckford Estate.

There's a nod to the sparkling wine produced there, with vines grown as a screen, a cleverly designed water feature and the small space is packed with plants, including the topically named "Corydalis Tory MP and Lychnis coronaria 'Gardeners World'.

Shaun Beale says that this is the very first show garden he's designed. I tell him he should get a gold, and when I see him at the Awards Ceremony later, he is awarded a gold, and there's a tear or two of happiness in his eyes.

Mind you, if he saw the current state of my garden (overgrown, borders need replanting, redesigning etc) he'd probably cry too but for a very different reason.

Beautiful borders are always a popular category at BBC Gardeners World Live, and this year's theme is My Space. There are twenty-eight different designs here, all very different, but the stand out showstopper is designed by Jonathan Ensell from Roots to Fruits.

It's witty, full of ideas representing different facets of the National Curriculum. I adore the plant abacus (maths tick), the Roman pottery to discover under the pebbles (history tick) and you even play a tune of the hanging terracotta plant pots (music tick) 

A well-deserved platinum award sent this to the top of its class.

I'm always beguiled by the delicious scents which greet you as you wander into the Floral Marquee and there's plenty of plants to tempt.

There are four satellite plant pyramids this year around the huge structure which dominate the whole area. I'm amazed at how they erect them all, and at the wonderful range of new plants.

On closer examination, my top five are Agapanthus "Fireworks" and Clematis "Little Lemons" from Thompson and Morgan, "Blueberry Pink Flamingo" from Suttons, Pinks "Pink Ruffles" from Whetman Pinks and Pelargonium Calliope Hot Pink from Syngenta.

So, just some of my personal highlights from this year's BBC Gardener's World Live, but there's something for every gardener to take away from the show - an idea, a plant, a contact, some inspiration, and even a lesson learned from one of the experts at the many talks on offer...

BBC Gardener's World is on until tomorrow.



English Wine Week 2019

So, today marks the end of a special week for wine lovers... English Wine Week 2019.

It's a chance for English winemakers to celebrate, to market their wines, to offer tasting sessions to show the uninitiated how good English wine can be. 

In Market Harborough last Saturday, David and Jane Bates who own the nearest vineyard were doing just that. Their Steeplechase Sparkling, a brut, was very refreshing in the summer sunshine.

Elsewhere in Market Harborough, our two excellent wine merchants were also promoting English wines. 

At Duncan Murray Wines, an award-winning independent, you can always buy English wines, but last week there were special tastings of red and white wines from Staffordshire's Halfpenny Green Estates, and yesterday you could taste Biddenden Ortega from the vineyard in Kent.

In the local branch of  Majestic Wines, glasses of Selborne Classic Cuvee Brut were available to try... and although I've drank this wine many times before, I couldn't say no - I like its dry apple and lemon hints.

It's just one of one the amazing sparkling wines coming from the south of England. The big hitters of course when it comes to sparklers are Nyetimber in West Sussex, Chapel Down in Kent, and the oldest one, Hambledon Vineyard.

Nyetimber's Classic Cuvee, and their Rose with its raspberry and redcurrant shout "England in a glass" as does Chapel Down's English Rose.

Sparkling wine accounts for sixty-six percent of all the wine produced in England, and I think it's what we do best.

Being given a bottle of English sparkling wine to celebrate any event is a real treat, and when friends come for supper, I'm noticing that more and more are bringing English wine. Ian, a friend of ours  who lives in Herefordshire, likes to bring his local wine from just across the county border in Gloucestershire,

Opening an English bottle of wine immediately starts a conversation...  about a vineyard, about a county, English history (such as when you open a bottle from Greyfriars Vineyard) and so much more.

There is the passion and the back stories of the smaller producers, who have changed their careers and lives, because of a dream - such as the wonderful Liz Robson who owns the two-acre Rothley Wine Estate in Leicestershire.

There are five hundred and twenty-two commercial vineyards in the UK... here's to their success, their dreams, and their hard work... and I look forward to tasting so many more of their wines, especially the sparklers!

I adore fizz...