For the fifth time this year we went up to Bridgemere Garden Centre to have a slow wander around their show gardens featuring their show gardens from previous RHS Shows at Chelsea and Hampton Court. This month was a special one though because it presented us with the first opportunity to explore the 2024 Chelsea People’s Choice Award and the Children’s Choice Award designed by one of our favourite garden designers, Anne Marie Powell. Sadly the judges disagreed with public and children and did not even give the designer a Gold Medal. We, like most gardeners we know thought they got it wrong. Sadly they will never admit that they could be wrong.
We had a quick wander around the other show gardens with the intention of seeking out obvious changes since our last visit, and there were lots of changes to attract us.
Firstly, just inside the gate we encountered the Cottage Garden which had gained so much colour as perennials showed off their colourful blooms.
We then made our way to the pool which we anticipated would have come to life. We passed some interesting planting on the way.
We went off to the Rose Garden expecting lots of colour as we have so many roses out at home. The reality was that most were still in bud with just a couple out to please us.
One flower that shone out throughout the gardens was the bearded iris.
We reached the new garden designed by Anne Marie Powell after admiring a grouping of Cornus kousa, their bracts glowing in the shade of larger trees.
The new garden is called the Octavia Hill Garden celebrating the life and work of the founder of the National Trust, a conservationist and a social reformer being especially concerned with the welfare of Londoners and other cities at the time.
We were not disappointed in the slightest with the garden in its new situation at Bridgemere albeit smaller in size and with some elements missing, such as the feature hand carved oak retaining wall with habitat panels.
The first set of photos shows our first views of the garden.
We sat on the first wooden sculptural seat where we could absorb the atmosphere of the garden and appreciate the quality of the planting choice and plant combinations. The next group of images illustrate the plants and some of Anne Marie’s plant groupings.
The central planting areas flow on both sides of a rippling stream which runs through chips of reclaimed red bricks and on into a pond. These plantings could also be viewed from a crushed red brick path which meandered around the outside of the garden.
The following group of photos show the central planting area, stream and pool.
This photo (below) shows the red brick based stream making its way through the matching beautiful colours of the plantings.
The pool had the added interest of sound and movement of an unusual water feature, where water arrives out of three corten steel channels.
We can now have a look at the outside path with plants along the fence borders and carved wooden block seating. Tripods of hazel wands housed a log pile and a stick pile as insect habitats, and would be good for the larvae of beetles and beetles themselves, useful predators and wildlife gardeners love them.
At the far end of the garden about half way around the crushed red-brick paths we arrived at a raised area topped by a corten steel overhead structure. Here also we got long views back over the whole garden and rested on some unusual seats.
greenbenchramblings 
