Not everything at RHS Chelsea costs a fortune. Many of the design ideas in the gardens can be recreated on a budget and used in your own plot. It’s a great way to transform your garden and make it your own. Here are five ideas and inspirations we spotted at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Colourful Barrels
Why not jazz up some giant oil barrels for planting up? These funky tin drums were used to create a carnival feel inside the Great Pavilion on the Parigo Alstroemeria stand 194 (ww.parigoalstroemeria.co.uk) and it was incredibly effective. You can paint the drums in funky colours or decorate with floral designs to suit your garden.
Light reflections
Do you use lights within your garden borders?? Have you thought about adding mirrors to amplify the effect?? These mirrored timber posts were created around the RHS Chelsea Showground by Lee Borthwick and placed within the borders to reflect the lighting around the area. Simple, effective and very easy to do at home.
Floating Flowers
When you accidentally knock the flower heads off your plants, float them in a water bath indoors or out for instant impact. They will last a few days like that and look amazing. These flower heads were on show on the True Fair, Fair Trade Garden Products Stand.
Pallet Planters
One of the exhibits within the Great Pavilion was showcasing fabulous succulents. Surreal Succulents (surrealsucculents.co.uk). They were displayed in a timber frame that looked like a very posh and high quality pallet. While I hate to demote this fabulous effect, it did make me think that you could recreate something quite interesting using a real wooden pallet and plant it with succulents and use it as a wall feature or a divider on a balcony or patio.
Cane toppers
How many times have you bent over the border or a planter that has supporting canes for your plants and poked your eye. It can be a serious injury and it’s really important to protect yourself from the danger of garden canes. You can buy cane toppers or you can make your own. Here’s a link to a children’s project making cane tops from decorated table tennis balls. But on the Gabriel Ash stand there were mini flowerpots and wraps of hessian around the canes to protect the tops.
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