It’s been a long time since I went to garden show or even visited another garden, all thanks to Covid. I had purchased a ticket to the RHS Chatsworth show in 2000 and when this show was cancelled my ticket was transferred to the Tatton Park show this year. When I realised how close Tatton Park was to the new RHS garden at Bridgewater it was obvious that I should combine the two. Unfortunately it was the hottest week of the year with temperatures around 30C, way above my comfort zone, so it wasn’t the most pleasant of visits for me.
Tatton Park
The RHS has held a show at the park since 1999 and it covers 28 acres of Cheshire’s 1,000 acre deer park. I have been to a few different RHS shows in the past and each location has its own atmosphere so I was interested to see how Tatton Park compared as it was the first time I had been to this show. My lasting impression was the heat – have I mentioned it was HOT.
City Gardens
Finalists in the RHS Young Designer of the Year competition produced gardens highlighting issues of sustainability and mental health.
Back to Back gardens are about the size of an average home garden.
The Feature Gardens aim to encourage visitors to look beyond the normal garden and plant choices.
Community Borders are each 3m square pockets of planting to showcase small-scale planting designed to be viewed from all sides.
The Floral Marquee contains dozens of growers and nurseries selling a huge selection of indoor and outdoor plants ranging from air plants, cacti and succulents through to summer favourites.
Outside there are many exhibitor stalls featuring a wide variety of items for the home or garden
There were also marquees for a vegetable competition and flower displays
RHS Bridgewater
RHS Bridgewater is the fifth RHS garden in the UK and opened in May 2021, having received planning permission in 2017. It is thus a very new garden which will take time to mature. Some areas are under developments, and some are for future development. I’m looking forward to seeing how the garden evolves in the future. One piece of advice I would give to anyone visiting Bridgewater, especially if you are prone to insect bits, is to smother yourself head to toe in insect repellent. Within half an hour of entering the garden I had five horse fly bites – thankfully they have a first aid area and I was able to put some ice on them to stop them from swelling, and they also lent me some of the insect repellent spray that they use themselves.
The gardens have been created in 154 acres of the former Worsley New Hall estate, with the Bridgewater Canal forming the southern boundary.
The Weston Walled Garden, covering 11 acres, is an original feature of the historic estate. It has been split into two parts, a kitchen garden and the Paradise Garden. Just under a mile of continuous brickwork at varying heights make up the perimeter of the Walled Garden and just under 2 miles of pathway have been laid.
Within the Paradise Garden there are 89 individual planting beds containing 27,000 plants.
The kitchen garden has more than 100 planting beds containing 29,000 plants and next to it is a community grow area.
The Chinese streamside garden, bordered by Ellesmere Lake to the northeast, is a work in progress. Over time, seven different zones will be established within this seven acre section, each embracing different styles of planting.
