Chelsea: The Daylesford Organics Garden

This garden always had a huge crowd around it, and it isn't hard to see why.....! (All photos should enlarge if you click on them...)


















One part of it was a hay meadow....perhaps for use as mulch. It was full of wild flowers...and had a very posh wicker scarecrow in a linen peasant's smock!



















The meadow was separated from the Kitchen Garden by a delightful cut and laid hedge.
And the vegetable beds were edged and contained by willow hurdles. Apparently these will last about 10 years. They were very handsome!

Behind the garden was a garden kitchen full of bread!

The RHS website describes this garden......
"Summer Solstice is an organic agrarian garden, linking a green wheat field flanked by native trees and wetland ditching to a sheltered potager for the new century. Kitchen garden becomes ‘garden kitchen’ with an architectural green-roofed building where what is grown is prepared for dining outside.
The planting is native and naturalised, and seasonal for the solstice. The garden is intended to demonstrate that the demands of organic practice, conservation, sustainability and self-sufficiency can be strengths, not limitation, in contemporary design.
Native trees flank and shelter a portion of green wheat, bordered by ditching for drainage and wetland flora, and native hedging for wildlife. This leads over a traditionally laid hedge into a kitchen garden, sheltered by stone walls and incorporating an outdoor fireplace.
The focal point, a state of the art green building, looks down the garden, with planted green roof, solar panels, reclaimed timber and Cotswold stone. At its sides, flowerbeds for flowers and soft fruits, offer clocks of colour, giving sightlines indoors and out and shielding the utilities of eco-friendly living – compost, wormery and water storage."
The plant list is available here http://www.rhs.org.uk/chelsea/2008/pdfs/DaylesfordOrganicPlants.pdf

It was truly inspiring, even if it was a bit yuppy!

NB I'll put a few more pictures in the next message because blogger will only load 4 at a time!!!