Garden Blogs

Its always exiting yet a little frightening when June arrives and I know there is a big job to be done at Hampton Court Flower Show which opens 7th July! I have the fantastic opportunity to build 2 really special small gardens for Rachels Organic, which together with some extra touches around the sales and hospitality areas should make it a must visit venue at the Show! Back in April I met up with Rachels team on site in the Great Park at Hampton Court. We had a choice of 4 potential locations and opted for a superb position near the long water with the Palace as our backdrop. I start the build on the 26th of June and the Gardens will be judged on the 6th of July just before the Show opens. My first Garden is called “Rachels Organic Passion for Taste Garden” The idea here is to connect the Garden to the products and the organic and sustainable ways they are produced. Its good to be working with a company that has strong environmental policies. This garden will consist of only natural products – a thatched Gazebo storehouse and low sleeper wall with radiating sleeper pathway - all from sustainable timber sources and really the rest of the garden is all about plants. Im confident I will have strawberries, currants and blueberries. My fruit trees have been purchased but are already getting annoying diseases like peach leaf curl – apart from soapy water any good ideas?(ideas that are of an organic approach of course!) The second Garden is called ”Rachels Organic Stylish by Nature Garden” This will be a fragrant monochromatic garden with the emphasis on silver as it's Rachels 25th anniversary this year! I've got a lovely big weeping silver pear tree already lined up for this garden, but I've still got a lot of leg work to do with the rest of the plants. Peter Beales Roses of Norwich are going to provide me with highly scented white roses, and I've been promised some pure black Ophiophogon grasses from another supplier. Its important this garden matches its name and reflects the class of Rachels products. More updates coming soon!