As @punkdoc has said, no dams were taken apart. The information was perfectly clear about how the garden was created. It's merely an example of what people can do - if they so wish. People can also do something entirely different - like Sarah Eberle's garden. Chelsea is no different from any other kind of showing, as I said on the other thread. It's just a showcase for ideas. Nobody's being forced into doing anything with their own garden that they don't like or that doesn't suit them, or their location. Next year, something else will be the 'in thing' - maybe conifers and rockeries again....
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I love the wild landscape. I have it all around me but I don’t necessarily want it in my garden. It’s not so much the diversity I’m questioning but the continual harping on about it as if we all should be contributing towards it. You don’t have to have invasive wild plants in your garden to produce pollinating plants which are good for the environment.
Chris Baines brought a rewilded garden to Chelsea in 1985 and wildiness has had a presence there ever since. It seems you are going out of your way to take personal offence at someone's garden. I think of the creators are part of "a community of passionate response" - loving and excited in what they are doing - in the same way as those who build travel gardens at Chelsea or support charity messages. Those gardens are part of the whole show every year too. Are those people who support Mind or the RNLI "sanctimonious" and pious too or just enthusiastic?
"Why do I feel I’m not doing enough for the environment"?
Why do you feel guilty? I don't know - I guess you would have to reflect on that for yourself. When there is a crisis, it's hard to know when we are doing enough - whether it's in addressing poverty or insect collapse or disaster relief.
I personally don't think gardening remains a mainstay of people's lives unless it brings joy. Guilt - not so much. Wildiness and joy often go together - in elements - as it sounds like it does for you too. I find 'beavered' landscapes a cause for celebration. It's a fast moving field where people are doing great work. It's not a 'trend', it's the culmination of thirty years of hard work in the UK to foster reforested, revived landscapes.
A 60% collaspse in insect populations is not something marginal tied up with 'eco-warriors'. Chris Baines' message from 1985 is the same as he is writing about today. Most people weren't listening then and they are still not listening now.
I don’t think I said they were ‘sanctimonious or pious’ or that I was inferring it. It’s just that all the conversation and focus seems to be about rewilding and I’m finding it a bit boring to be honest.
I don’t get the issue with people doing something different at chelsea, surely that’s the point!! I’m also not sure why people feel so personally attacked by a garden about rewilding
I don’t feel personally attacked. I’m just bored with the constant discussion about re-wilding. I’m not objecting to diversity either. It’s more about the conversation steers around the same subject all the time.
I have to admit that I haven't watched much of the Chelsea coverage this year. However, from what I have seen, I would say any of the gardens I saw at the Malvern Spring Festival are head and shoulders above anything at Chelsea in terms of desirability and practicality to me.
Mrs-B3-Southampton does have a valid point when saying that gardens at Chelsea should be compared more to a Fashion Show than something to actually copy or aspire to.
It's the preaching that does my head in. Especially when, to use punkdoc's weirdly personal attacking words (easy, tiger), it feels "disingenuous." There's such a look-at-meism in the contrived "wildness" and it's all such a genteel and artificial wilderness at that. It's not as if they bring in maggot-riddled animal carcasses or just have a lot that is 95% brambles. Though I shouldn't give them ideas.
You don’t have to have invasive wild plants in your garden to produce pollinating plants which are good for the environment.
I’m just bored with the constant discussion about re-wilding.
Fair enough. I'm bored with all the current fashion for hard landscaping everywhere and high concept gardens. But luckliy the show isn't about me. There is enough to offer all sorts of perspectives and angles. More and more I think - if you can pull out one or two new or exciting ideas or plants per show then that can be enough. I think the same of GW. There's always a new thing to learn or a new plant I get excited about. I take a lot of screen shots.
There is a lot of talk about re-wilding just now, partly because of the exit from Europe and a profound shake up of farming and env subsidies. And, with huge flooding problems in the last few years, with more looming and millions proposed in building flood defences, some rewilding approaches offer cheap if not free solutions to some of it. That may not be exciting until your living room is under two foot of water.
It's the preaching that does my head in. Especially when, to use punkdoc's weirdly personal attacking words (easy, tiger), it feels "disingenuous." There's such a look-at-meism in the contrived "wildness" and it's all such a genteel and artificial wilderness at that. It's not as if they bring in maggot-riddled animal carcasses or just have a lot that is 95% brambles. Though I shouldn't give them ideas.
This is the Chelsea Flower Show. You are worried about it seeming contrived? The designers have a small plot for a few weeks and millions of eyes around the world assessing what they can do with it.
The RHS try and keep the show themes connected to current issues as they are accused of looking backwards and trying to put gardens in aspic. So they focus on mental health advocacy, youth gardening, charity support, environmental degredation, celebrating post-industrial landscapes, education etc. I daresay it's literally part of the RHS brief to build a "message garden". If you feel they are "preachy" then perhaps the shows are not for you.
For me, gardening programmes highlight the beauty of iPlayer that is being able to jump ahead. I skip over all the presenters that grind my gears, the waffly bits or stuff not to my taste.
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It's merely an example of what people can do - if they so wish. People can also do something entirely different - like Sarah Eberle's garden. Chelsea is no different from any other kind of showing, as I said on the other thread. It's just a showcase for ideas.
Nobody's being forced into doing anything with their own garden that they don't like or that doesn't suit them, or their location.
Next year, something else will be the 'in thing' - maybe conifers and rockeries again....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...