Go Large!

Choosing my landscaper was an easy task – earlier in 2012 in a conversation with Matt, who owns Greenbelt Landscapes, he mentioned how they’d love to build a show garden at Tatton. He was therefore my first choice, as I’d know he’d pull out all the stops to get as good a medal as he possibly could! Matt and his team have a great track record winning medals at shows, not just Golds but Large Golds, at both Southport Flower Shows and Holker Hall Garden Festivals (check out the photos). And it’s not only medals they’ve won, but a few extra accolades such as Best Newcomer, Best in Show, and Peoples Choice Award. I hope my design can live up to their standards!

Matt and Belinda of Greenbelt Landscapes

Greenbelt Landscapes won Large Gold ay Holker Hall Garden Festival 2012                          

With a limited budget, we wanted to ensure the garden makes the greatest impact possible by being as large as we can afford. I believe bigger IS better when it comes to a show garden!! Especially for the impact it will have for Alzheimer’s Society and their potential publicity.

The choice is between what the RHS call ‘Back to Back’ gardens, which are 7x5m this year, or the officially named ‘Show Garden’s, which can be any size up from 8 x 8m. The last garden I created was a Back to Back so I’m really keen to go large this time, giving greater scope in terms of design.

Matt has been able to beg, borrow and steal (well, at least beg!) some stunning Purbeck Sands paving from Natural Paving who have been kind enough to donate this for free. What a great start.

And with the judicious use of water in the garden (a very low cost element) our submission is based on a show garden measuring 9m x 9m, a decent size to create what will hopefully be a stunning garden. This allows us to invest most of the budget in the plants, the real stars of the garden.