Chelsea Flower Show Blog

I don't know about you, but watering is the only job around the garden which I find a real chore. And with the Met Office here at Hampton Court giving us dire warnings of low rainfall and scorching temperatures in the coming decades, any tips I can get for cutting back on the time I spend with my watering can are very welcome. So I jumped at the chance to talk to the Send a Cow team in their cheerfully-coloured, busy show garden, right next door to the Climate Change Dome. Gardeners in Africa have a thing or two to teach us about growing plants in a drought, and this garden is packed with ideas. "The idea of a bag garden is that you can grow more vegetables in a smaller space," Kirstine Dunhill, of Send a Cow, tells me. They are tiny, too - hessian sacks about the size of a supermarket carrier bag, yet bursting with healthy veg. There's a secret, of course, to their success. "They have a central column of stones going down the middle," explains Kirstine. "So rather than the water getting stuck in the top layers, it actually filters all the way through." That means even veg planted through pockets cut in the bottom of the bag get enough water. To get the column into the centre of the bag (or pot) take a plastic drinks bottle and cut off the neck and base, giving you a plastic tube. Put the tube in the centre of your pot, and fill it with stones. Pack the compost around it, then lift the tube up, leaving the stones in the soil, then repeat until you get to the top of the pot. Voilà: a stone column running through the compost, ready to take water right to the roots where it's needed. Another fantastic idea I picked up - which could make its way onto my allotment before long - is the keyhole veg bed. This is a raised bed with bells on: it's about 1m (3'6") high, and the outer bed, where the vegetables are growing, slopes down from a central hollow column. There's an access path to the column (giving the bed a "keyhole" shape viewed from above) and inside it is what amounts to a compost bin, held in with hessian: you fill it with kitchen waste, stable manure, grass clippings - whatever you'd put on your compost heap. Then tip on water saved from your washing up, and that's it. "The idea is that the water will drain through and take all the nutrients with it," explains Kirstine. "It's feeding from below the topsoil, so rather than watering on the surface and all the water evaporating, everything's coming up from underneath." In Africa, this garden will feed a family of six through the three-month dry period, when crops in the fields simply dry out. In Britain, as we adapt to more hot, dry summers, techniques like these could make all the difference.

My wallet really didn't take too much of a battering this year, my head was turned by a very sexy indoor/outdoor beanbag but after much deliberation I managed to tear myself away. I'm not a naturally nosey person but watching hundreds of people tugging little trolleys around the showground - each with a different selection of plants peeking over the sides, it's difficult not to look! There'll be a warm nod of appreciation when someone has a selection of beautiful perennials (my personal weakness) nestled together 'ah yes, a lovely combination you've got there', there's a cheeky little bi-coloured salvia I've seen time and again, Salvia 'Hot Lips' seems to have been a best seller. A madly floriferous red and white flowered perennial, that'll bring a bit of fun to any garden. Sometimes I'll have a peek in a trolley and wonder how on earth a particular mix of plants will ever work together in a garden but hey-ho, each to their own! Then there's the trolleys themselves, when I've not quick enough to side-step, I've be rewarded with a swift knock to the ankle, word of warning there! Echinacea 'Art's Pride is Hampton stalwart, a warm rusty orange flowering perennial from the daisy family, looks fab at this time of year, very tempting. Penstemons in every shade of red, pink and purple are not normally one of my favourites but they look almost edible at the show and are everywhere, I know I've got true Hampton fever when I start finding plants irresistible that I'd usually not give a second thought. Take heucheras for example, I found myself admiring an entire display of them in the floral marquee, the range of foliage colours is astounding and every year there seem to be more to drool over. You see what's happening? I've never admired heucheras before, just not to my taste, but maybe that's the point of shows like these, to make you think outside of your own horticultural box...it's working for me!

Naked lady anyone? I'm not talking about Colchicums or even autumn crocuses but the unusual coloured silhouette sculptures that have been catching my eye on the way to the press tent every morning. They look strangely at home in this flamboyant setting but I think I might get a few raised eye brows if I took one home! These are just some of the huge array of inventive garden focal points at Hampton this year. Many of you have commented on the high standard of the trade stands and how they are almost merging into gardens themselves. I have to agree, they put the extra space they are given at the show to great use and some of the most inventive displays are from the sculpture exhibitors. This year the variety is huge, I've even seen a performing skeleton in bronze on one of the stands. For those with larger gardens and budgets to match, there's whole safari park of animals on offer. Near life-size metal giraffes will add a certain air of sophistication charging across the front lawn provided you don't live in a South London semi. And for those who were thinking of a water feature you can even get an elephant that spurts water from it's trunk in regular bursts. Sadly for me I don't have the room for any of these things, and usually opt for a striking plant to form a centrepiece. I guess I'll have to stick to something more suitable for a small garden, has anyone seen any gnomes?