I don't get conceptual art. I don't get atonal music. For me they are both contradictions in terms.
Happy to accept that others see and hear things differently - as long as they don't thrust it at me or tell me I'm stupid for not liking it.
For me, a garden should be fun and beautiful and restful and stimulating and productive and respectful of the local ecology. A garden needs to work for me, my family, our pets and resident and visiting wildlife.. For me that means ornamental plants, a veggie plot and some water. Don't want a miniature landscape or a quarry. I want to see good plants well combined in ways I can aspire to or be inspired by.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Have been a bit irritated by the TV coverage for the last couple of years - not least because they hardly ever tell you what the jolly plants are! This year a very lovely friend invited me to go with her. It was my first ever visit, so I have nothing to compare it with really, but my impression is that I didn't get to see a particularly good year. Very interesting was how different the gardens look in reality compared to how they appear on the telly. For example: the Yorkshire garden is gorgeous, but in real life that arch at the back looks incredibly naff and spoils it completely, and the 'Silk Road' looks quite tame on TV, but those pink rhodedendrons are frankly disturbing when you're confronted with them in real life - almost painful to look at. But what struck me most was the lack of variety. There was so much 'naturalistic' planting; naturalistic to the point of imitating utter neglect, like the World Horse Welfare garden, which had docks, nettles and (shudder - having tackled a three metre x eight metre monster thicket when I moved in here) a bramble! It was beautifully done - they all were - but after a while we were longing for something a bit different in style. It all got a bit samey, and eventually we thought that if we saw another white ragged robin artfully combined with grasses we might scream. Odd also how repetitious some of the planting was in terms of the more cultivated varieties too. There must have been some bargain offers on single white paeonies - gorgeous of course, but in every other garden - and the endless orange geums. There were some real beauties though; the Sarah Raven garden is gorgeous, the Listening Garden is amazing too, and Chris Beardshaw's was utterly beautiful, the best of the 'big boys' and should have been a gold.
Went to Chelsea today and had a great time. For me a garden has to make me go wow and to 'make my heart sing'. The best in show didn't. Loved Chris Beardshaw's garden, really liked The Silk Road Garden and Lee Bestall's Covent Garden. Some of the artisan gardens were beautiful. Enjoyed the BBC gardens too.
I really dislike the BBc coverage on Chelsea. They show the same gardens over and over but never actually give you any more detail. I want to know how they get the water so clear, see in detail the plants they use and why, I'm not interested in the expensive bits like a presenter jetting off to the desert to see a palm tree being dug out of the ground (ok, not this year but it did happen one year, this year we had the Barbados trip when we already had seen a lot of the shots in GW). I want to find out how the exhibitors come up with their ideas, how they control the flowering of their plants, how they manage to transport them.....and have a look round the shops at the best buys (and at any show you always see every third person with the same thing whether it is a plant support (remember the year of the curly plant supports?) or whatever.
I do get disappointed every year - having been quite a few times I don't think the BBC does it justice.
There was one garden with exquisite planting but it got shown so quickly I only caught a glimpse of it and can't even remember now which garden it was - I know it was a garden, garden and not a 'wild' garden.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
The crowds are why I don't go. I tend to avoid London anyway. I do have tickets for Chatsworth, it's on the doorstep and it is promised to be different.
For me, the annoying thing about the coverage is looking round the gardens of other people.
Along with most folk, I love Mary Berry, but I don't tune into Chelsea for a look round HER garden. Some lady the other night, Kelly Brooks?? She seemed a lovely young lady, but I've no idea who she is , or what relevance she has to the Chelsea Flower Show.
The clips they showed a couple of nights ago, ( my friend Melvyn with his Primulas, and the guy with the miniature Hostas ) were shown on GW about 2 or 3 years ago. If there's not enough at Chelsea to fill the programmes, ( which seems unlikely ) make them shorter, don't pad them out with " celebrities" or rehashed stuff from years ago.
That's fine hostafan, I thought the colours of those primulas were exquisite and I am hoping the stand will be at Gardeners world live as I really want to buy some
Posts
Not to your taste, maybe, but pretentious rubbish?
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I was listening to the bird singing away in the background to the human narrative. Enchanting.
I don't get conceptual art. I don't get atonal music. For me they are both contradictions in terms.
Happy to accept that others see and hear things differently - as long as they don't thrust it at me or tell me I'm stupid for not liking it.
For me, a garden should be fun and beautiful and restful and stimulating and productive and respectful of the local ecology. A garden needs to work for me, my family, our pets and resident and visiting wildlife.. For me that means ornamental plants, a veggie plot and some water. Don't want a miniature landscape or a quarry. I want to see good plants well combined in ways I can aspire to or be inspired by.
Have been a bit irritated by the TV coverage for the last couple of years - not least because they hardly ever tell you what the jolly plants are! This year a very lovely friend invited me to go with her. It was my first ever visit, so I have nothing to compare it with really, but my impression is that I didn't get to see a particularly good year. Very interesting was how different the gardens look in reality compared to how they appear on the telly. For example: the Yorkshire garden is gorgeous, but in real life that arch at the back looks incredibly naff and spoils it completely, and the 'Silk Road' looks quite tame on TV, but those pink rhodedendrons are frankly disturbing when you're confronted with them in real life - almost painful to look at. But what struck me most was the lack of variety. There was so much 'naturalistic' planting; naturalistic to the point of imitating utter neglect, like the World Horse Welfare garden, which had docks, nettles and (shudder - having tackled a three metre x eight metre monster thicket when I moved in here) a bramble! It was beautifully done - they all were - but after a while we were longing for something a bit different in style. It all got a bit samey, and eventually we thought that if we saw another white ragged robin artfully combined with grasses we might scream. Odd also how repetitious some of the planting was in terms of the more cultivated varieties too. There must have been some bargain offers on single white paeonies - gorgeous of course, but in every other garden - and the endless orange geums. There were some real beauties though; the Sarah Raven garden is gorgeous, the Listening Garden is amazing too, and Chris Beardshaw's was utterly beautiful, the best of the 'big boys' and should have been a gold.
Went to Chelsea today and had a great time. For me a garden has to make me go wow and to 'make my heart sing'. The best in show didn't. Loved Chris Beardshaw's garden, really liked The Silk Road Garden and Lee Bestall's Covent Garden. Some of the artisan gardens were beautiful. Enjoyed the BBC gardens too.
I really dislike the BBc coverage on Chelsea. They show the same gardens over and over but never actually give you any more detail. I want to know how they get the water so clear, see in detail the plants they use and why, I'm not interested in the expensive bits like a presenter jetting off to the desert to see a palm tree being dug out of the ground (ok, not this year but it did happen one year, this year we had the Barbados trip when we already had seen a lot of the shots in GW). I want to find out how the exhibitors come up with their ideas, how they control the flowering of their plants, how they manage to transport them.....and have a look round the shops at the best buys (and at any show you always see every third person with the same thing whether it is a plant support (remember the year of the curly plant supports?) or whatever.
I do get disappointed every year - having been quite a few times I don't think the BBC does it justice.
There was one garden with exquisite planting but it got shown so quickly I only caught a glimpse of it and can't even remember now which garden it was - I know it was a garden, garden and not a 'wild' garden.
Well, my money is on Chris Beardshaw getting the peoples award.
The crowds are why I don't go. I tend to avoid London anyway. I do have tickets for Chatsworth, it's on the doorstep and it is promised to be different.
For me, the annoying thing about the coverage is looking round the gardens of other people.
Along with most folk, I love Mary Berry, but I don't tune into Chelsea for a look round HER garden. Some lady the other night, Kelly Brooks?? She seemed a lovely young lady, but I've no idea who she is , or what relevance she has to the Chelsea Flower Show.
The clips they showed a couple of nights ago, ( my friend Melvyn with his Primulas, and the guy with the miniature Hostas ) were shown on GW about 2 or 3 years ago. If there's not enough at Chelsea to fill the programmes, ( which seems unlikely ) make them shorter, don't pad them out with " celebrities" or rehashed stuff from years ago.
That's fine hostafan, I thought the colours of those primulas were exquisite and I am hoping the stand will be at Gardeners world live as I really want to buy some