Discover & Learn
naton
But why do we conference? It’s no small thing to step away from normal life for four days, leaving homes, work, family (and gardens ). It doesn’t matter where we are in our gardening journey, how old or young we are, or what we believe outside the garden – for those four days, we get to be absolutely unashamedly garden-loving-geeks. We are connected by a simple love of growing.
We often say that it all started with just one flower, and that flower was planted, of all places, in the vegetable garden. At the time, we felt a bit cheeky about it. Steph even asked permission (a rare moment!) to sneak that single bloom into the raised veg beds. And so it began.
As I scroll through my Instagram feed, the Chelsea Flower Show takes over right now. Frothy, wild-style plantings spill across my screen, nestled in artfully placed boulders and bordered by natural stone crazy paving (yes, it’s back). At a glance, these gardens appear to be in harmony with nature. But the irony isn’t lost on me: these ephemeral creations, built at great environmental cost, are some of the least sustainable landscapes around.
An odd heading so please bear with me! One of the most essential elements if not THE principal element I consider when planning a new bed, a new garden, or the renovation of an existing one is the place. The genius loci.