David's Blog

Gardening Scotland 2008

Posted on 4 Jun, 2008 7 comments

Well, hot on the heels of the Chelsea Flower Show, Scotland held her own horticultural extravaganza last weekend from Friday to Sunday, at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, Edinburgh. It was awesome, in my humble opinion. My visit was planned for Saturday, and I couldn’t have chosen better. Wall-to-wall sunshine, with temps touching the 80s! I sat on a sandy “beach” in a deckchair ,surrounded by palms, watching the jet planes land at the airport across the perimeter fence, dreaming of holidays, but, in all honesty, I “wish you were here”, The Ks of visitors were in relaxed, holiday mode. I had tastings of professional BBQ cooking, in the form of cooked breakfast, Thai chicken curry, shrimp in oyster sauce, marinaded pork loin, paella, and, even, a chocolate fudge cake baked on the barbie!! This took place in an area called the Big Back Garden, where there were outdoor games, play equipment, creepy crawlies, and many other ideas for having fun in the garden The show gardens (15 of them) provided loads of ideas, Not one of them, however, gained that coveted Gold Medal.There were more than 80 new exhibitors this year, and the very popular “Pallet Garden Challenge” gets bigger and better. In a nutshell, schools, pre-school nurseries, local horticultural societies, etc. compete to make the best miniature garden possible. The idea originates from a wooden pallet, which the creator(s() dismantle and reconstruct as a miniature garden 1 metre x 1 metre (an upgrade on the miniature gardens in balsa tomato/mandarin boxes we made as kids). Now, even, the pallets are provided in the form of 1×1 metre, black plastic frame. The Living Garden was an area dedicated to wildlife gardening and conservation, herbalism, composting, grow-your-own fruit and veg, etc. The Beechgrove Theatre was the venue for BBC Scotland’s radio broadcasts, the popular Sunday lunchtime gardening question/answer programme “The Potting Shed”, discussion forums, and a very popular fashion show by students at Herriot Watt University School of Textiles and Design. Their briefs (if you’ll pardon the pun) were: (A) design and create clothing to garden in, made from “green” fibres such as organic cotton and hemp. The garments had the added bonus of being biodegradable, so that they can be put into the compost heap/bin when they wear out, and (B) create new clothing from worn out denim jeans (some very interesting articles in this collection).
“Sustainability” was a central thread in the whole show this year. The Floral Hall had 155 stunning displays, there was a crafts marquee, 100 traders in garden-related goods and dozens of nurseries and plant stalls, of course. With music in the form of Dixieland, Celtic ballads, classical, and, of course, the Pipes and Drums, the whole show had a carnival feel. Due to the memory card in my camera dying, I lost all the pics – a great reason to return on Sunday for a second helping! I promise that I won’t show all 283 pics I took, but I’ll share a few of my favourites. What did I spend my cash on? Not much, actually. I signed up as a member of the RCHS (Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society) and bought their CD-ROM titled “Plant and Grow”, a gardening course for children which, done properly, takes a year and leads to a certificate. I’ve glanced through it and, if I know that I’ll learn loads from this, not just the kids. I won an Acer in a prize draw but, otherwise, I ate my way through the spending money:- strawberries and cream, Aberdeen Angus steak baguettes, strawberries and ice cream, AA steak baguettes, strawberries in champagne, AA steak…........and so on! I did mean to get some of those Himalayan blue poppies but, somehow, I forgot.

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Tags: Gardeningscotland