Beautiful British Gardens
I am no gardener, so when I was told I would be looking into the world of gardening I was quite apprehensive about what to write about, but after reading hundreds of other blogs I have acquired quite an appetite for becoming more green-fingered.
As you will have seen on the Garden ER website www.garden-er.tv, we are running a weekly competition for you to send in pictures of your garden, with the winner having the ‘Best in Show’ garden. However, what makes a beautiful garden; I think it is in the eye of the beholder. It all depends on what you as an individual wants from their garden.
With that in mind here are a few gardens that I have taken a sneaky peak at, with my opinion of why I think they are beautiful!
The first one I will mention, mainly because I visited for the first time last week is Hampton Court Palace. I had gone down for the flower show opening evening, and happened to walk through the main entrance and was stunned by the sheer beauty of it!
Walking along the immaculately pruned paths, lined with flowering hedges and vibrant rows of roses, I began to imagine the King himself strolling proudly through the grounds of the palace (or getting lost in the maze) and it was quite exhilarating to think I could be walking in his footsteps. The 750 acres of land must be a hefty job for any gardener to maintain and one challenge I definitely couldn’t do as a beginner, but as a visitor it is quite a spectacle. The palace was an expensive place to live and when the Royals moved out it was in high demand. Even today people live within the grounds, a fact of which I am quite jealous. During the reign of King Henry VIII the rose became the national symbol for England, which appears to have influenced gardens of today.
With the rose becoming a symbol for the country, this leads me to a blog I recently saw about “The Special Relationship” between the USA and the UK. It said how gardening varies massively across the whole of the USA, but “the English model, all rose-decked, lush green lawned and topiaried, seemed to be the model to emulate.” This gives me reason to believe we have some of the best gardens in the world, especially if they are a basic model for a fair share of American gardens. It is a nice thought that our British heritage is seen in this way; even the White House has a rose garden by the front entrance! This brings me back to Hampton Court Palace and how Henry VIII was probably a key influence into how gardens are now right across the globe.
However, beautiful gardens do not have to be expensive, grand affairs; they can be small and effective. All the talk of roses brings back childhood memories of my Nanny’s garden! She always seemed to have roses growing, and I remember her being an avid gardener with plants and pots everywhere – a dire shame for someone like me who loves football. Now, I am a bit older, I can appreciate a good garden so my Nanny gets a special mention as over the last few years she has had time to do up her garden. Although completely paved, I think it looks lush and in my opinion looks quite lavish considering it is a relatively small garden. It is full of different colours, and the Calla Lillies have been growing since my school days and look better than ever; especially now I’m not trashing them with a football.
Ok, so I did say that size doesn’t matter, but this guy has proved me wrong and taken small to the extreme! Rather than have to worry about acres of land, or even a few metres of lawn, the Pothole Gardener‘s biggest worry is cars running over it. With the harsh winters over the last few years, roads have become a nightmare for potholes. Rather than the council filling them, the Pothole Gardener has had a go at Guerilla gardening and done a grand job; I love it.
His projects include a mini road with hedges, flowers and even street signs along with a tiny version of Wimbledon. I think his work is quirky, something you don’t see everyday and it still looks pretty, even if it is in its own unusual way. Although, I doubt you can call it a beautiful garden (more of a beautiful pothole) he deserves a mention nonetheless.
So, my conclusion to a beautiful garden is…entirely down to you and what you want! There are so many ways to make a garden look beautiful that there is no right or wrong way, be it the masses of perfectly manicured lawns or the tiny pothole gardens, they are all beautiful.
Garden ER is brought to you by Anglian Home Improvements.
PS. I would like to thank the Pothole Gardener for sending me so many pictures and allowing me to use a video, Hampton Court press office for their swift response and pictures and finally my Nanny for creating a lovely garden. 
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