The Naturally Fashionable Garden - Nicholas Dexter Picture Credit: BBC

So, you’ve seen the show gardens and taken in the Grand Pavilion.  Now what?  Fancy building a Corten steel structure?  Planning on filling the back garden with tree ferns? Or do you fancy inviting the cow parsley in?

Unlike designers building a Chelsea Show Garden, most people have to grapple with a small space, limited budgets and even more limited time.  Lovely though they are, perfect, expensive gardens bear no resemblance to the average garden.  Are they ‘aspirational’ in the way of catwalk clothes or is there something you can take home from Chelsea?

One thing that caught my eye, which I’d like to try at home, is  the use of silver birch logs as a natural form of adornment in the garden.  In The Naturally Fashionable Garden they were at different heights, standing on end, softened and brought together by grasses and light planting.  The logs not only looked beautiful, they provided an architectural, vertical accent, as well as a good home for bugs and other wildlife.

Jo Thompson’s ‘Thrive’ (The Unexpected Gardener) also used logs, this time lying horizontally.  The repetition of circles added a pleasing decorative touch to this chic garden.  Stacked in a high tower, they provided another vertical statement that draws the eye.

The Unexpected Gardener - Jo Thompson Picture Credit - Thrive

The Bradstone Biodiversity Garden proved that sometimes the only thing to do in a small garden is to think big.  The monumental sunken arch made of a pleasing, yellowy reconstituted stone was a striking feature that acted as a perfect foil to the delicate planting in front.  When confronted with a small space, don’t be afraid to be bold: large leaved plants can provide the drama you need to liven up a confined area.

Sunken gardens are one of the topics covered in designer, author and journalist Chris Young’s new book: ‘Take Chelsea Home’.  Chris has been through thousands of photographs of the show and selected the most useful ideas in them.  He quotes designer Bunny Guinness who says that a sunken and contained area in the garden is highly conducive to great conversations. She advises using wide, custom made seating and adding coloured cushions on top for dramatic swatches of colour.  A central fire pit will keep you warm all night.  Slot in an outdoor projector and you can watch old films outside. (Use a white sheet if you don’t have a blank wall).

The book also features some interesting shots taken of gardens at night. If you are lighting your garden, consider using coloured light – there’s a stunning example of a tree spotlighted in pink light.

The Bradstone Biodiversity Graden - Paul Hervey-Brookes Picture Credit: BBC

If you don’t have space for vegetables in your garden, grow them in containers.  Sow directly in them and choose ‘cut and come again’ varieties of lettuce.  Don’t mix zinc with terracotta or plastic as this can make the place look cluttered.  Stick to one kind.

My last take home tip from the Chelsea Flower Show is to think  again about conifers and pines .  They don’t have to be funereal plants inhabiting a wasteland of suburban rockeries.  Seek out pines that have blue-green leaves and mix them up with lavenders, Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’ and other matching foliage,  as well as grasses, tall, spindly plants like Verbena bonariensis or Dierama pulcherrium (Angel’s fishing rods).

For more ideas on taking Chelsea you can visit the RHS website

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Is it because you can’t buy plants at the Chelsea Flower Show that the urge to shop is so irresistible to most people?

Seasoned colleagues tell me they deplore the commercialism of it all, while I keep my guilty secret that I always look forward to shopping at Chelsea.  Each year I make a point of buying  something of very good quality which I would normally consider too much of an extravagance. Last year I treated myself to the Emma Bridgewater set of flower mugs made for the National Garden Scheme (NGS) and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them all year.

This time I fell for an antique Haws copper watering can for seedlings and houseplants, from Garden Brocante on Eastern Avenue (and yes I did actually need it).  Husband and wife team, Peter and Zoe, sell antique garden tools and equipment at unbelievable prices (spades and forks with satisfying, wooden ‘D’ handles are about £16- £24). My watering can was only £20. “The prices reflect that I can’t be bothered to persuade people to buy something,” jokes Zoe. “Everything is priced to go.”

I also succumbed to two sets of Wills cigarette cards (they used to be given out with ‘Woodbines’ and other brands in the Wills stable).  Each set contains 50 lovingly kept cards, which illustrate practical gardening techniques like propagating dahlias, sowing peas and taking runners from strawberries. The back of the cards have advice on them.
At a cost of £15 each set, I feel privileged to own a small slice of horticultural history.  Garden Brocante are given much more space at the Hampton Court Flower Show in July, so they have many more irresistible large items.

If you love tools, Felco secateurs are a good place to visit at the show on Eastern Avenue.  You can take your old secateurs to be refurbished for £14.50.  The company cleans, oils and replaces blades as necessary.  If the handles need re-dipping they will send them away for you for a small extra charge.

Other goodies I spotted this year are a new portable BBQ by Town and Country for £10.  They come in lime green, purple and blue and are useful in small gardens.

The Carrier Company is selling gorgeous fine wool, herringbone waistcoats for £94, which would suit men or women.  Whereas tweed is often rather stiff, this soft fabric has an instant lived-in Mellors appeal.

We’ll forget the outdoor Jamie Oliver Wood Fired Oven which was unveiled on Mark Gregory’s ‘Children Society Garden’. Who wouldn’t want one? But, at £2,000 – £5,000 I don’t think our local Italian restaurant will be facing any serious competition.

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They say that behind every successful man there is a woman.

And behind every successful Chelsea Show Garden there is a shed.  Some contain exotic items like rose-water and lime leaves, others are cluttered with boxes of disposable plastic shoe covers. (Chelsea judges don’t take kindly to messy footprints).

While the public sees only cool, calm, sophistication on Main Avenue, behind the scenes there is a makeshift world of shanty living.  At the Chelsea Flower Show, the shed becomes a home-from-home for the garden designer – a womb-like structure to retreat to, where copious cups of tea are made.

By the time Medals Day has come on Tuesday morning, many designers are suffering from exhaustion.  Uneaten sandwiches give way to bottles of fizz: everyone knows they have to savour the moment and make the most of enjoying a garden that will soon be torn down.

We randomly photographed the sheds of 6 designers: James Wong/ Malaysian Tourism, Tom Hoblyn/ Foreign and Colonial Investments, Robert Myers/Cancer Research, Andy Sturgeon/ Daily Telegraph, Tom Stuart-Smith/Laurent Perrier and Roger Platts/ M&G.

Enter our Chelsea Flower Show Shed Competition for the chance to win a highly sought after, signed copy of ‘Shedworking: The Alternative Work Place Revolution’ by Alex Johnson of the world renown Shedworking blog. All you have to do is Match The Shed To The Chelsea Show Garden.

Picture Credit: Courtesy of Helen Fickling

Picture Credit: Courtesy of BBC Online

Those with 6 right answers will be placed in the prize draw. E-mail me here

Competition closes when Alan Titchmarsh rings the bell for the Chelsea sell-off at 4pm on Saturday. My grateful thanks to photographer Helen Fickling who dashed round to take the pictures and the designers who allowed us behind the scenes.

If you haven’t done so yet, there is still time to vote for ‘Shed of the Year’ over at Readers’ Sheds.

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