I managed to get to Chelsea Flower Show for the first time in ages and oh! what a joy it was. The crowds are hideous and I always wish I could have been there on press day or the build up when there is much less people and much more excitement! But I took my life into my own hands to be elbowed and jostled by the RHS silver surfers!
The gardens were as always imaculate, built with the precision of a motor engine but with the beauty of nature.
The artisan gardens (previously classified as courtyard gardens) were little pockets of Eden.
I could rattle through them all but that would be boring. So my favourite two were Tokenkyo a paradise on earth by Kazuyuki Ishihara, and the dial a flight potters garden by Nature Redesign. Both very different in style but beautifully executed and full of detail. They were the kind if garden that you could sit in for days and still find something new and beautiful to look at.
Beautiful planting in the Potters garden
Ishihara's garden reminds me of the beautiful mountains in Yamanashi near Mount Fuji where the air is so pure and the mountains springs so cold. It is a true Japanese paradise. It could have come straight out of a studio Ghibli film. The exquisitely positioned miss not only covering the ground but up the walls and the gate, softening the surfaces and creating a safe environment to forget all your worldly problems.
Japanese maples draw your eyes in towards the house
Pine tree designed on the gate surrounded by moss
The Potters garden on the othe hand was asking us to remember. Abandoned in the war of 1914 it is brought back to life lest we forget the great sacrifice those men and women made for their country and the sacrifice the armed forces continue to make to this day. It was the detail that made it for me, the barbed wire and birds on the pots, the discarded belt shells and the little clay plaques with messages from the front. The planting was dense yet delicate, frothing with country favourites. 
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