All posts tagged Chris Beardshaw

Show Garden Top Tips

Posted: June 19, 2012 · Comments: 0

Tuesday 19th June, 2012

I’ve recently spent some time at the BBC Gardeners’ World Live in Birmingham assisting Chris Beardshaw planting his show garden Urban Oasis.

We set out and planted 450 plants in the pouring rain. There was mud everywhere and I loved it. At one point we were bailing the water out of planting holes with buckets. I discovered that wearing waterproof trousers doesn’t mean that you won’t get soaked through to your underwear, and that as long as it isn’t too cold, being wet through is NOT THAT BAD.

RHS Show Cardiff

Posted: April 20, 2012 · Comments: 0

Friday 20th April, 2012

A trip to Cardiff combining the RHS Show with the visiting of some good friends along the way. In addition to seeing the gardens and taking lots of photographs I was on a mission to talk to some designers and extract as much wisdom from them as I could.

First stop Chris Beardshaw, his garden Urban Oasis was designed in consultation with community workers and landscape architects at Groundwork and in collaboration with the RHS. It was lovely with beautiful planting (see photo above). He’s taking a different garden to every RHS Show this year, blimey! I quizzed Chris about the planting and he gave me some great advice: make sure you’ve planted three to four days before judging so the plants have time to relax; and, if you’ve bought the plants rather than borrowed them, then plant them out of the pots, again they relax more and even grow a little.