My favourite garden of the whole show and, coincidentally, the winner of a gold medal with the added distinction of being the 'Best in Show' was from that very clever gardening team at Narborough Hall in West Norfolk headed by my friend Dr Joanne Merrison. So excited was she when I saw her that I was rewarded with a bear hug that left me quite breathless. She then, very kindly, gave me a guided tour of her creation and I was totally blown away by her creativity and attention to detail.
Everything in this garden worked. The cleverly crafted fruit cages, each just large enough to house one fruit bush, in this case a blackcurrant and a blueberry, were made from high quality timber and galvanised wire mesh with beautifully dressed lead work.
These are meant to last. One section of the roof and one side panel are very easily removed so that the interior can be 'gardened', the bushes pruned and the fruit easily harvested. But these so-called fruit cages had been put to other uses too; one contained a compost heap that was ingeniously wrapped in sheep's wool to help contain the heat that is essential for the necessary rotting process, another had been pressed into service as a home for a very contented Pekin Bantam hen who gazed perplexed at passers-by who oohed and aahed over her, all looking expectantly at her nest box to see if she had produced an egg.
Joanne enclosed her garden with woven willow panels that looked absolutely right. In fact, you didn't notice them at all, which is as it should be, because the object of our attention should be the garden they enclose. There was a very smart gazebo on one side of the garden that was sufficiently enclosed to give enough protection from the elements but welcoming the garden inside, while on the opposite side there was a covered seat where you could relax with a good book, although knowing Joanne, this is most likely to be a seed or nursery catalogue! On top of this seat was a willow sculpture of a rather fantastic bird. I overheard several people admiring the 'pheasant', others called it a 'peacock', but I had my own interpretation. I know that this garden will be dismantled and taken back to Joanne's home at Narborough Hall where it will arise once more like a phoenix from the flames to give many more years of pleasure to all who see it, so to me the bird was the phoenix!
Here, too, was a set of shelves that could be used as a theatre for potted plants. We have all seen auriculas grown and displayed in this fashion, but other plants could be displayed like this as well. In fact, it would be an interesting exercise to think of alternatives for later in the season when the auriculas have finished. We could use ferns, or miniature hostas, or old-fashioned pinks, or small species begonias, all of which could be displayed in beautiful clay flower-pots that have the pattination of age and, therefore, look right.
There was a table, the base of which was constructed by using a stack of logs of various sizes. These were intended to make suitable homes for over-wintering insects. Very cleverly ferns had been planted in some of the gaps between the logs in pockets of soil to add yet another dimension. The table top was made of a single slab of grey slate which protects the logs from becoming too wet in the winter. In a corner stood a pump, the kind that you use for obtaining water from an underground source by pumping the handle, this was in homage to the fact that at home Joanne uses pumped river water for irrigation throughout her garden.
Each area of this garden had been very carefully thought out. There was a garden containing scented foliage plants, including scented leaved pelargoniums, many of which are used for making teas and tisanes. There was a cutting garden, very colour-themed to make the most of a very small space. Here, we found tall elegant agapanthus and perfectly managed tripods of sweet peas in full bloom with not a mark on them in purples and mauves. There was also a herb garden full of the scents and smells of summer that included a plant that was new to me. Basil 'African Blue' has the most incredible purplish, almost glaucous foliage and masses of small blue flowers. This is a 'wow' plant to grow in the hottest part of your garden.
The square bed at the centre of the garden contained a selection of vegetables that had been grown by Bob, the head gardener. There was a tepee of purple podded climbing French beans, kohlrabi and Nerode Toscana and Red Bor kales, lettuces with every kind of coloured leaf that you could imagine and a rather charming wooden seed tray containing leeks readyfor transplanting into the bed.
Here, too, was a clump of the rather fabulous azure blue flowering pea, the original seeds of which were discovered in the tomb of the Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun.
Another pea of great interest was the fabled purple podded pea. We grow this here at East Ruston Old Vicarage where it does very well, giving us large crops of purple pods from deep reddish-mauve flowers. However, it does not taste wonderful as a cooked vegetable. I wonder if it was not grown as a pea for drying for winter use as a pulse, but as it is so decorative it deserves to be grown anyway.
Also included was Lathyrus matucana, one of the first sweet peas to be introduced from Sicily in the 17th century. This is one of the most highly scented of sweet peas and the seed is readily available today. We should all include it in our gardens. It has flowers that are in two shades of purple and although slightly smaller than its more highly bred cousins, it more than makes up for this by being so generous with its swooningly sweet scent.
All of the beds in this garden had really good timber edging and the slate-covered paths lent a gorgeous glaucous tone to the whole, but, to me, the thing that I loved most was all the romantic touches, an old metal wheelbarrow full of well rotted muck that was about to be spread upon the soil, that and the lovely old galvanised metal watering cans and various garden tools meant that the overall tonal quality was stunning.
Imagine this, stained grey timber, grey lead work, grey slate, glaucous foliage offset by the inclusion of some of the most beautifully grown plants and there you have it. This garden was made by someone who really cares about what they are doing and the world in which they live.