Abingdon Horticultural Society chairman and beekeeper, David Bingley, takes home ideas from the cream of the crop of the designers at this year's RSA Summer Flower Show

GROW, inspire and feast...

As a mission statement, it's one gardeners everywhere would wholeheartedly support. And as the three banners for this summer's RHS summer flower show at Tatton Park in Cheshire, the challenge was on to showcase a wide range of creative gardening ideas - all in magnificent surrounds.

There were 29 show gardens to explore, representing five categories of garden.

Visitors could meander round and compare the design and planting detail of each garden within a group - giving visitors the opportunity to see how clever the designers had been with their creative thinking within each category.

The main show gardens were grouped along Avenue A, and a walk around each area gave a perspective of the features each designer had tried to highlight.

Highlights included the garden designed by the female prisoners from HMP and YOI Styal. The inmates designed and constructed the garden 'Picking up the Pieces' while studying for their City and Guilds Horticultural qualifications. You can only wish them luck and hope they will fulfill their potential after serving their time.

Moving along the avenue, one could find the 'Perennial Legacy Garden' which was designed to reflect elements of a large English Country Estate. The main features were the borders planted with traditional and contemporary herbaceous perennials, taking inspiration from the long mixed borders found at Arley Hall and Upton House.

The 'Inspire' gardens featured three water gardens.

The inspiration for 'Maggie's garden was taken from the Art Deco period, but the white metal contemporary structures and planting scheme of white, silver and green foliage provided a tranquil and relaxing garden feature.

In contrast, the adjoining gardens had water features crafted from natural materials and plants to attract wildlife into the garden all year round.

The section also contained the 'Back to Back' gardens. These were gardens that occupied 6 x 4m plots, similar in size to many starter homes of this decade.

The gardens have been described as 'big ideas for small spaces' and many showed examples of low maintenance gardens with an eye on attracting wildlife into a relatively small space.

Another highlight was the 'Inspire 176' garden - a high impact colourful space designed specifically to attract bees. Wooden hexagonal structures gave height and the bench and table gave a place to sit and observe the workers collecting pollen and nectar.

2015 is the International Year of Light and the three 'Year of Light' gardens featured concepts of science and reflection.

The 'Reflecting Photonics' garden used a range of materials, including fibre optic glass and coloured perspex to illustrate the reflection and movement of light. While the planting scheme used rainbow colours to draw eyes into the main structure of the garden.

Unmissable, was the 'Light Catcher' garden and the 'Quantum of Light' garden - a garden design using a wide range of materials and plants to represent a visual interpretation of a particle collision event in the Large Hadron Collider at Cern.

The English Country Gardens theme was chosen for the young designer of the year competition.

Oxford Mail:

Out of their sheds: The Lost Garden

The three designers have been supported and mentored by an established garden designer and the gardens were first class in design and construction.

To me they were all winners and have a great future ahead of them.

The Feast area of the show was dedicated to all things edible. There was an allotment gardening feature where you could get expert advice from experienced allotment gardeners, and a wide range of talks and demonstrations in the Fruit and Vegetable Pavilion.

The Grow zone was, of course, all about plants! It included the floral marquee where the dramatic displays of new blooms, specimen plants and old favourites, many of which were available to purchase from the growers. Growing and cultivation advice was also available from the growers to help you get new family members established in the garden at home!

Oxford Mail:

Making a splash: The water Garden designed by Harry Levy

If a visit to the Tatton flower show was not possible this year, the RHS has four gardens, each offering a great day out: the flagship garden at Wisley in Surrey; Harlow Carr in Yorkshire; Hyde Hall in Essex; and Rosemoor in Devon all offer diverse plant collections and an opportunity to view very high horticultural standards and practices.

For more on the RHS and its work, follow this link...