in the frame at gardener's world live

As we headed up the motorway, the weather had a threatening air. As we were waved into an abandoned car-park and directed to the back door of the show by a hi-vis rando and eventually captured by an irate supervisor furiously brandishing a walkie-talkie my heart sank, somewhat. But inside was the usual melee of plants, shopping, garden bobbins, shopping, slebs, shopping, stonishing gardenlets made by children, designers, hort students. Oh, and shopping. As usual the sharing of the venue with the Good Food show provoked some confusion; zig instead of zag and the greenhouses and innovative composting solutions are suddenly replaced with sausages and balsamic vinegar. But this does mean that the food wagons are superior stuff. Although we were up on a non-Carol day (boo!) there were five celebrities on our scratch card by the end of the day; Frances Tophill and Monty filming in a show garden, Mark Lane giving a lovely talk in the members lounge, Arit Anderson finding treasures in the plant village, Adam Frost in the hard landscaping gardens (found by following the enormous boom that gives all the panoramic views of the show) and Monty again, rhapsodising at length about his tools on the main stage. 

I "forgot" my wheelie trolly. This was supposed to help me shop less. Ha-ha! More on that later, but just quickly, while it's still fresh - what were my ten stars of the show at GWL?

1. Municipal inspiration Two of the best gardens (Canal and River Trust and Design it New York) were directly inspired by public greenspace, the first imitating a wildish tow-path, complete with volunteers fishing and riding bikes and a plastic heron, and the second evoking the public benches and towerblock backdrops of NY's High Line. People are often coming to gardens late nowadays, after they've spent years gasping in tiny new-builds and buying season tickets to the local botanical gardens to get their garden fix. People like that (yes, me) have favourite public green spaces and our gardens reference them. Nice to see that on show.
2. White flash planting Dark corners, gloomy corners and basement corridoor gardens were one of the problems seeking solutions explored in detail this year. If it had been a sunny day, the open nature of the showground might have made this feel a little silly; as it was, the white popped under the dark British sky. Euphorbia ice mist was the signature plant, backed up by the white flags of cornus, various and variegated absolutely everything but definitely Fatsia Spider's web. Subterranean Sanctuary and Deep Green showcased this in the Beautiful Borders. The classic white garden often annoys me, with its  aura of vast country piles. This brings the look into the practical, modern, urban zone with big bold leaves, almost a cold tropical flavour.
3. Farmville Vegetable Patches Absolutely epitomised by The Dahlia Garden, this grids up large, often exotically-shaped or coloured vegetable plants in small enough numbers that you can give the plants tender, loving individual care. Flowers are interspersed, but not cottage garden style; they also go into the grid, a line of Dahlias or Petunias or Nigella sitting tidily alongside the Brassicas and Leeks (so architectural). There's a magnificent new masculinity about the plumped and contoured plants, the deep chocolate background (even mulch makes the plants look better), the firmly espaliered or lollipopped miniature fruit trees and the thrilling flamboyance of the oversized, glossy, pixel-polished planting.  
4. Object of desire 1: Stumpery Among all the wellbeing and mindfulness-inspired borders, there was an out-and-out stumpery. Moss, of course, makes the rain look good. Tiny woodland flowers look exquisite. One of the delightful chunks of rotting wood (the stumps were inverted, for extra interest) had obligingly grown a toadstool. The effect was ridiculously calming, forest bathing on a flower fairy scale. In the floral marquee, many fine demonstrations showed how this could work with tropical flowers, air plants, orchids, water planting, perennials, bonsai, bedding and (of course) ferns. Source some rotting wood, and make your beetles happy.
5.  Object of desire 2: Chickens Up in the allotment corner, there were chickens in tidy little modern pens, with chicken pushers handing out advice to punters about how a chicken could be fitted into any back garden. Which is kind of true, as long as you understand that once the chickens are in the garden, it's their garden now. Among the more regular broods, they had Silkie chickens, and Silkie chickens in the rain are hilarious, once you get over fretting about them getting chilled and dying. I'd like to see more chickens in towns, wandering about like pigeons and hedgehogs and rats. Silkies would do well, because once you choose back gardens as your territory, it is survival of the cutest.  
6. Planted and perforated barriers Gardener's World Live loves its fences, walls, screens and borders because it's a way to make a small space feel super-large, a temporary space feel permanent. Green poured in through the inset planted windows in the walls of the Creative Roots Garden, verdancy storming the castle of order. Doll's house bricklets were interplanted with erigeron and asplenium and tiny straps of hardy grass in the heritage gardens. Green gleamed through the cut-outs on the inevitable rusted screens in the contemporary spaces. The Revelation Garden (yes, it did come complete with four horses of the apocalypse!!!) had gone completely literal with the idea of our father's house having many rooms - meaning that large garden features could exist in a small garden space, but also that you could glimpse gardens through gardens, like a magic box, dream or fantasy maze. Speaking of which:
7. Green screens Some of our father's rooms had walls or fences, but others were 100% green screens, and these were having a moment. Low barriers made of tall grasses or trained shrubs-of-interest were a particular feature, against walls or free-standing, little stepover barriers that emphasised the importance of the plants. Higher up, visibility screens of trained vines and splayed woody climbers hovered above hedges thinned just a little, to allow tantalising glimpses through to the neighbour's garden beyond. The presence of the television cameras hammered home how these backdrops also frame the action in the garden; and a smooth, tidy, even green screen makes the stars of the show look good.
8. Rainbow Planting There was a little bit of this at Chelsea, but we got a bit snippy about it, because it has missed out indigo. But at GWL, among the various Beautiful Borders, was a fabulous, basic, 100% in-your-face PRIDE border, single colour-block planting with rainbow flags overhead, from The Bearded Botanist. The crowds loved its simplicity and cheerfulness, and take-home easiness. The many pride-flag variations have my head spinning this year; I really like the straight-ally flag (and may end up buying the t-shirt, thus further contributing to bisexual invisibility). You could plant that up, couldn't you? It'd be awesome! 
9. Hardwood/softwood cuttings Ah. Paradise Plants. The find of the show. Their stand was covered with astonishing shrubs marked with the magic words "You can't buy me but you can buy my babies". beneath, little pots of rooted cuttings were selling like hot cakes... and the empty space where there should have been a spectacular huge Kleims Hardy Gardenia did suggest they were flexible on the whole you-can't-buy-the-big-plant thing. I'm a big fan of hardwood/softwood cuttings myself. Find a shrub you like, while it's in flower, so you know exactly what you're getting. Nip off a twig. Root them in any handy pot. Wait for the magic to happen. Five years later, an astonishingly healthy shrub, perfectly suited to your garden.
10. The bedroom is becoming a shrubbery To end on a Peter Greenawayish note (with all dark undertones intended) there was a fair amount of bedroom-in-garden this year, including a literal bed, but also an orgiastic hot-tub surrounded by wildflowers smashed flat (by the rain, presumably, though it had a proper festival foot-trampled feel), at least two glass-wall interiors letting out directly into gardenspace and a plethora of sheltered, intimate nooks and crannies and trysting-spaces. Privacy and display both catered for in the modern garden. So practical!

I caught up with the action on the telly last night, and was (this seems a bit of a common feature) astonished to see a whole enormous garden I just didn't find at all! Also, I wasn't in any background or atmosphere shots, boo, despite some determined lurking in-shot behind Francis Tophill... but a good day, and much fun had by all. Also, I have new goal, given me by the lady on the airplant stall. Can I make my Spanish Moss flower?