Gardens without Borders

Gardens without Borders                    Word on the Week           28th May 2022.

You know summer has come when the media proclaims the opening of the Chelsea flower show!  This week long event is a logistical triumph.   Many entries come from round the world.  Keeping their flowers alive and coming to their peak for Chelsea is no small task.

In all there were 39 gardens and 80 nursery floristry represented. Some 13 were selected to be show gardens.   These average an amazing 3,125 plants!  Transporting and creating these gardens takes place the week before the show opens.  The best in show garden came from Ireland.

The trends are towards wilding from the wild kitchen garden with edible fruits, flowers and herbs to one showcasing a natural re-wilding of landscapes.  This one confined itself to using plants grown in these islands.  Following the reintroduction of beavers in south west England there was a water feature with beaver dams.   All of which provoked Monty Don of BBC’s Gardeners World to question if this was really a garden at all!   Perhaps a new class incorporating fauna needs to be created!

Queen Elizabeth, who is a patron of the show, was present in her version of the ‘popemobile’!   This being her Platinum Jubilee there were many floral tributes including one of her profile in flowers on a platinum coloured background.

For the record the plant of the year was voted to be the Semponium ‘Destiny’.  My choice would have been the Irises of which the blue is my favourite.

Returning to more pressing matters the Plantsman’s Ice Garden provided a warning of global warming.   It centred around a 15 ton 2.5m cube of ice symbolising Siberian permafrost.   The cube gradually melted during the week providing a cool water supply of melt water for the surrounding Siberian irises.

Designed by Joe Swift, the BBC Studios Our Green Planet & RHS Bee Garden is buzzing with inspiration for gardeners to help protect bees and other pollinators in their own green spaces. With a design based on a bee wing, the garden shows how easy it can be to create a beautiful space that is great for pollinators too.

When the Lord God planted the first garden he designed the prototype for all the gardens that were to follow (Genesis Chapter 2 Verse 8).   Weeds, the emblems of our sins, destroys it’s beauty.  With the atoning work of Christ on the cross for our sins the possibility of a renewed garden arises.   This time the living water Jesus spoke about (St John Chapter 4 verses 10 to 14) flows through it removing the curse and healing those who respond to Jesus’s invitation to drink i.e. trust in Him.   His promises are true.