The Landform Garden Bar.
7 Garden Design Ideas From Hampton Court Palace Flower Show
Flower shows and botanical gardens are a tremendous source of design ideas for your home garden. Yes, even palaces can inspire your home garden. After all, a person’s home is their castle.
I’ve compiled a list of seven garden design ideas from the 2018 Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. If you’re looking for more ideas, and there are many, take a look at The Lab’s Inspiration Gardens.
Covered Seating Area
Covered seating areas are a tremendous way to allow you to enjoy your garden more often. The protection of a covered area allows you to enjoy your garden in the mid-day sun or a light rain. Just pull up a chair, grab a cool drink and a good book, and enjoy the peace of the garden.
The Secured by Design Garden (Silver Show Garden Award) and The Association of Professional Landscapers’ A Place to Meet garden were two of the gardens with beautiful covered seating areas.
The Secured by Design Garden.
The Association of Professional Landscapers A Place to Meet garden.
Plant a Rock
Yes, you read that right; plant a rock! Placing a large rock in just the right part of your garden can create a focal point. Using a group of them can accentuate the natural contours in your yard and create a dramatic backdrop for your plants.
A simple example is the large rock in Countryfile’s 30th Anniversary Garden. Its large size and texture draws one’s attention and creates a wonderful backdrop for the grasses and ferns planted at its base.
Countryfile’s 30th Anniversary Garden.
More dramatic examples of rock use are the Rías de Galicia: A Garden at the End of the Earth (Silver World Garden Award) and the Great Gardens of the USA: The Oregon Garden (Bronze World Garden Award), which used rocks extensively in their water features.
Rías de Galicia: A Garden at the End of the Earth.
Great Gardens of the USA: The Oregon Garden.
Garden Bar
It seems like garden bars were the latest must-have garden feature of 2018. In fact, there were no fewer than three gardens that featured bars. Now, I’m really not a heavy drinker, but I love sitting at a bar for a little something on ice, a bite to eat, and a little chin wag with a good friend – or a great bartender. And, honestly I can’t think of a better place to do that than in a garden!
My favourite bar was the one featured in The Landform Garden Bar garden (Gold Show Garden Award).
The Landform Garden Bar.
The other gardens featuring a bar were the B&Q Bursting Busy Lizzie Garden (Best Show Garden Award) and The Entertaining Garden (Silver Lifestyle Garden Award).
B&Q Bursting Busy Lizzie Garden.
The Entertaining Garden.
Naturalist Gardens
Among the new features at Hampton Court was a special garden and award that recognises an individual for their contributions to horticulture: the Iconic Horticultural Heroes award. The inaugural award went to Piet Oudolf, the influential Dutch garden designer, who was the leader of the “New Perennial” movement.
Oudolf’s gardens use a naturalist approach which focuses on a plant’s seasonal life cycle and the structural and textural changes that take place from season-to-season. The Piet Oudolf garden featured plants like the Eryngium bourgatii (Mediterranean sea holly), Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’ (sneezeweed), and Achillea (yarrow) whose structural form, colour, and texture are equally interesting in full summer bloom as they are when dried on a cool autumnal day.
Eryngium bourgatii and Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’ in the Piet Oudolf-styled garden.
Achillea in the Piet Oudolf-styled garden.
Another naturalist garden from Hampton Court is Countryfile’s 30th Anniversary Garden, which takes inspiration from the British countryside. Among the plants featured in this garden were Campanula rotundifolia (common harebell) and Prunella vulgaris (selfheal).
Countryfile’s 30th Anniversary Garden.
Wildlife Sanctuary
A wildlife sanctuary is a shelter in the garden for wildlife such as birds and beneficial insects like butterflies and bees. The Family Garden (Silver-Gilt Lifestyle Garden Award) featured an immense wildlife sanctuary wall made primarily of logs.
The wildlife sanctuary wall of The Family Garden.
The RHS Grow Your Own demonstration gardens featured a smaller wildlife sanctuary that would be an easy-to-make addition to most any size home garden.
Display in the RHS Grow Your Own demonstration gardens.
Accent Wall
Walls are often used to create privacy and enclose a garden. However, a wall can also be a garden accent. For instance, The South Oxfordshire Landscape Garden (Bronze Show Garden Award) uses a brick wall as a backdrop to a bench. The wall is only about 1.2 metres wide by 2.4 metres tall (4 feet by 8 feet) but packs a load of interest and texture with its diagonally laid brick.
The accent wall of The South Oxfordshire Landscape Garden.
A more dramatic accent wall was in the Santa Rita: Living the Vida 120 Garden (Best World Garden Award). The imposing oxide-yellow steel sectional wall adds both interest and a punch of colour to the garden.
Santa Rita: Living the Vida 120 Garden.
Contemplation Corners
Sometimes don’t you just want to be alone? I know I do. And when I want to be alone, a hidden corner of the garden is where I want to take refuge. Escaping to a private place in the garden lets me work through the problems of the day, meditate, and mentally prepare to take on whatever the world is dishing out!
The Southend Young Offenders’: A Place to Think garden (Silver Show Garden Award) is a lovely example of a ‘contemplation corner’. One side is hidden by Betula nigra (river birch) while the other by the tall stems and flower heads of Agastache ‘Blackadder’ (giant hyssop ‘Blackadder’). A glimpse of the white Carrara marble sculpture is your clue that there’s something to see and experience there.
The Southend Young Offenders’: A Place to Think garden.
In a corner of The Style and Design Garden (Silver-Gilt Lifestyle Garden Award), behind a trio of apple trees is a very private, tiled sitting area waiting for discovery. The table and chairs allow this contemplation corner to double as a dining area for two.
The Style and Design Garden.
For more design inspiration why not check out Global Garden Lab’s related article on design ideas from the Chelsea Flower Show.
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