SPEAKER_00 0:00

BBC Gardeners World Live at the NEC in Birmingham. The sun's trying to come out. It's very humid, but lots of smiling faces. Not least of all on the face of Henry Bartland from Marlborough. Because Henry, it says behind you, as we mentioned a moment ago, Platinum Award winner for your border. You must be delighted.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Yeah, so pleased. This is the first time we've done a beautiful border at the show. So yeah, very chuffed to get platinum. Can't really believe it actually.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

A garden between stories is the title. Tell me about it.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Yeah, so it's very much inspired by my childhood and sort of the teams, sort of how they when they were growing up. It's all about how you can use a garden for adventure, different areas of exploration, and sort of it's multi-generational, you know, families can enjoy it and different ways to explore. So we've got a really wild natural feel and little touches that kids would enjoy, like a fishing net, fairy garden, and so on.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Wild natural feel, that's the sort of rewilding thing that everybody's talking about, isn't it? And it whilst it looks natural, a lot of thought has gone into this, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Yeah, there's a lot of craft behind it, that's very true. And I think um, but it does show that actually with the right plant choices, when you've got them in the right place, you don't have to panic too much about how to look after them, they look after themselves. But yes, craft behind the magic here, but it is very natural looking, hopefully.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

That looks a little bit like my uh lawn at home as well, uncut and full of daisies. We've sort of about four metres square, is that is that the size of the bigger one?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Yeah, it's it it's three by three metres exactly, yeah. So, but we like the idea. We've got a circle, circular piece of the lawn that you mentioned in the middle, gives a sense that you can go in different directions, but and we wanted to cram as much in but still get the balance that it's not too stuffed and you know overpopulated.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

And and I guess that's the key for a lot of new gardeners, particularly, is the desire to put more in, hoping that that is going to be better, but that's not always the case.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

No, you're absolutely right. I think actually smaller spaces can be the hardest to get right because you know you stare at it and think, well, actually it's not too big, so I think I'm gonna have a go here. But actually it's worth taking your time, living with the space a bit, and then not putting too much in and really thinking about how what you want from the garden as well. Do you want it to be relaxing? Is it for fat kids and families? And then that can guide you in the plant choices and also how densely you want to put things into.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

So just on queue there, we saw a white bottomed bumblebee come in, uh, which is really important because working with the ecosystem and and encouraging wildlife into gardens is important. So just talk me round what you've got planted here because it is beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Thank you. Yeah, so in the in the woodland section, we've still got loads of lovely pollinators, like we've got some Foxgloves in front of us, which you know sell seed anyway. So I think if you can get some Foxgloves in, they go everywhere. We've got some little geraniums, and then as we walk round further, we get into a sort of more richer part of the garden, which is more inspired by cottage planting. But you've got salvias, you've got geoms, you've got Achillea. Achillea is a wonderful plant, it's got a terracotta colour. This one, it's native to the UK as well. Bees and pollinators love it, and I'm always amazed that as soon as you put plants like that in, the bees find it within seconds, quite literally.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Absolutely, there's another one just coming in now. You are popular, aren't they? The salvia, I've seen so much of that this year, it seems to be incredibly popular.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Yeah, I think salvia's great because it's reliable, it's hardy, it's part of the sage family, so it's not difficult to look after. And you can get so many different varieties in terms of the shape of the flower, the colours as well pink, purples, whites, blues, everything like that. So I think it's a kind of must-have for me, a salvia.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

They they sort of make a bit of a statement, don't they? Because they they stand quite proud, quite thin, a long uh flowering area, which in in your case here you've got this beautiful sort of mauve purple colour, which which dotted around really makes a statement among everything else.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Yeah, I agree because they don't take up too much space in the ground, they go straight up, so that's why they're good. Because they're so vertical, they just look fabulous. The other thing I love about the salvias as well is that when their flower heads are finished, you can snip them off and you'll almost certainly get a second flush of flowers the same year. So it's a really good tip, you know. You should always cut off the the the seed, you know, the flower heads once they're done and enjoy, keep everything watered within a few weeks you'll have more coming through. So it's really reliable.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Yeah, this is what many people would know as deadheading, is it is that right?

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Yeah, the slightly strange, aggressive sounding term deadheading, but essentially it's snipping off the flower heads with uh some scissors, secretaires, even your fingers, frankly, is okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

How important is it when you're putting a garden like this together, which is to to win an award, to show people what can be done, that actually when people go home and try to replicate it, because they're looking for inspiration here, that it's manageable.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Yeah, totally. I mean the the one of the main reasons we did this was that you know we we I work as I set up a garden design business called Dig, and the reason we've done that and we sell instant flabber and so on online, it's about simplicity. So I think what we're trying to portray here with our show showboarder is that it doesn't it doesn't have to be as complicated as you think. You know, you can take ideas, even if it's like, oh, I like that plant, I'm gonna give that a go. It's not as if you have to take the whole thing home, but if you can inspire people and give people more ideas to how what you know things they can try for themselves, I think that makes all the difference.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

So just finally, what was the the first conversation you had like with the designer Fabian Maidlin Robinson? You have a blank piece of paper, you you've got, I guess, a year in which to prepare uh for the show. How did you arrive at this? What was that first conversation like?

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Well, we knew that the the the sort of brief, the theme that we were tasked with and working against was Once Upon a Time. So we immediately thought, well, it's about stories, we like the idea of framing it around families. So we kind of riffed it from there, and we immediately thought that Once Upon a Time lends itself to a more sort of magical natural feel as well. So we were thinking, do we go cottage? Is it purely that? We love woodlands as well. So it was quite an organic process, you know, excuse the pun, as we worked through, knowing that we wanted something that would actually appeal to all generations as well. So we had a few different ideas, but we settled on this thought that actually a gardener's a place where you can explore, you can you know use your imagination, and it evolved from there.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

And just looking around finally at the at the other borders that are here, there are some tremendous uh borders, high competition this year, which uh the smile on your face I suggest makes it all that uh more special.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Yeah, I have to say, as I mentioned earlier, this is the first time we've done it, that A, all of the people who are doing the borders have just been wonderful. It's a it's an amazing community that's developed even over a few days, and the standard's so high. And and it's amazing you get people that like us who are garden designers, you have community gardens. So, yeah, it it was we knew it was going to be demanding, but actually we were just here to enjoy it. And obviously, getting a platinum medal is wonderful and unexpected, but just being part of this and being able to talk to everyone and share our experiences and ideas has been fantastic. Lovely to catch up with you, congratulations once again. Thank you so much, appreciate it.