91Èȱ¬

At home the wildflower meadow on my greenroof is looking breathtaking - it was newly sown only last year and performed well but this year it is truly fabulous. Lots of people think you can't have your own wildflower meadow - especially in a small town garden but I think that's tosh. To me it doesn't matter if it's an acre of wildflowers or a 2ltr planter, it's the fact you are using wildflowers in your garden and the benefits they bring no matter how big or small! Mine is only about 2 x 4 meters but it is attracting huge numbers of insects and is a stunning asset to the aesthetic of the space. It's a hot south facing 'terrace' (kitchen roof) with decking top n tail of the turf and a spiral staircase halfway along to access the lower garden. The idea is that you interact with the meadow, walk through it to get to the spiral stairs and other decked area - I love it almost as much as my cat 'Zeet' who spends many hours chasing the bees and flies that weave endlessly through the grasses above! I am always on the look out for an interesting addition to the meadow mix. If anyone has any exciting/different plant ideas I would love to hear them :)

With every visit to Berryfields at the moment, the garden seems to have changed so dramatically - the long borders stand tall and broad, the nectar border heaving with life and veg garden brimming with the fruits of Alys, Joe and Geoff's hard labour! This is definitely the season to take a moment to sit back and enjoy the garden - take a glass of wine and perch in the splendour that you have nurtured into life. As gardeners we get used to things moving and changing - the seasons, the plants we grow and the seed we sow but for me the big changes happening at GW have been rather unnerving. The news about Monty is still echoing around 91Èȱ¬ Birmingham - weirdly it only really started to sink in when I read the news in the papers. I like Monty, he's a good guy. I will miss the joking and laughing with him at the garden, his irrepressible passion and of course on all our telly's as the nations head gardener. And then the next question - who will it be to step into those (rather large) boots? It seems almost sacrosanct to mention it but the reality is we have to move on, it's not a decision I would like to have to make!

This week I spent a bright and warm Wednesday at the NEC, in sharp contrast to the downpour of rain we all had Tuesday. I was looking at the muddied construction of the show gardens - trying to glimpse the potential gold's or sniff of a silver gilt. If you didn't already know - it's Gardeners World Live next week and the NEC is bracing itself for tens of thousands of green fingered folks to descend! I will be running around like a mad thing with the rest of the GW team, filming anything that grows! If you are coming down to the show keep an eye out for me - I will be hunting out which plants people are buying - so don't be surprised if I grab you for a quick question :). GWL is certainly not the easiest show in the world to work on, it's busy, sometimes manic but it is great fun every year. At GWL there is always a fantastic buzz.
I'm off to do a bit more prep for next weeks madness - have a great weekend in your garden but watch out for those exotic biting insects!
Happy Gardening, Ben :)