Highlights from Hampton

This is just a brief whizz through some of the gardens at Hampton Court that caught my eye. It is far from comprehensive because, due to a 5.45am start, I forgot to take my camera with me and failed to fully charge my iPhone. Anyway, excuses out of the way, I did really like the reincarnation of the World Vision garden which used some of the same elements as they did in their Chelsea garden – in particular the yellow Perspex rods and the squares of sunken planting.

The Conceptual Gardens were generally of a high standard this year. The Malawi Garden from African Vision featured examples of the keyhole gardens that provide people with sustainable, compact ways of growing food in a hot climate. In the centre of the garden was an internally mirrored metal box with portholes that looked into what appeared to be an infinite field of maize. This was designed to raise the question of whether food security should be based on a single crop. Thought provoking stuff.

There were some interesting garden structures on some of the gardens – the Macmillan Legacy Garden featured an inviting pod-like building clad in greenery and with a tree growing through the roof. The City Twitchers Garden was designed for bird lovers who were given their own woven ‘nest’ from which to watch the wildlife.

There were several ‘World’ gardens promoting different destinations – by far the most successful and atmospheris was the Turkish Garden of Paradise which in the bright sunshine really did look a slice of Turkey transported to Hampton Court.

One aspect of the show that I was not so keen on was the way they have separated the show gardens and scattered them around the site. Apparently this is to avoid areas getting overcrowded which is understandable, but it was rather a case of ‘hunt the gardens’.