Me and my Dad went to RHS Tatton Park Flower Show on Saturday and had a fabulous time.

Here’s my Big Write Up!

We really enjoyed the 3 show gardens by the RHS Young Designer Competition – all 3 show gardens were creative, but the winner of the competition, Caitlin McLaughlin, Nature & Nurture garden was absolutely AMAZING.

We got talking to Caitlin’s sister and she let us on to the garden. We sat and talked for quite a while and learnt a lot about how the garden had been designed and constructed. It was really relaxing with wild flower and perennial planting, hard landscaping and a shallow pond. We had a good chat about wildlife, how Caitlin had grown some plants herself and some of the problems she’d had with the build, like finding a hole in the liner of the pond. I thought it was very clever for someone so young and I just enjoyed listening to her. (Thanks to @TimHowellX for the last photo.)

I’ve mentioned before about how much I enjoy water gardens and one of my favourites was Jackie Knight’s Natural Visions, which was perfect for nature lovers like me. The garden had a stream running down tumbling over slate rocks into a pool. I sat in a circular pod and Jackie twirled me round, which gave me a 360 view of the garden. The garden reminded me of a beach I go to in Wales called, Cwmtydu; how different contrasts come together – the transparency of water, the wet and dry slate and stone and the wildflowers used.

I loved the Roald Dahl BFG garden, it was full of intriguing things, I even got to blow smoke into the garden, it was awesome. It was brilliant how they had created an atmospheric den where the BFG lived. The glass jars were great because they reminded me of reading the book the year before. The wicker sculpture was brilliant too; what a lot of effort on such a massive scale

I was desperate to spend my pocket money in the floral marquee and it’s always nice to see Rob from Hardy’s Plants – it’s a great stall with beautiful flowers; we only had a brief chat because he was really busy. I bought a plant for someone special’s shady garden; always time for a selfie!

Next up was Matt from Hampshire Carnivorous Plants ; he was extremely friendly and helpful and gave us loads of advice about the North American pitcher plant I bought. The plant is for outside and will live by the pond, at the moment it’s in a temporary position until more work is complete and then it will have a permanent spot. Matt was very informative and I learnt quite a bit; he also helped me with my carnivorous plant that I have in my bedroom.

So my latest obsession is Bonsai Trees and I couldn’t wait to visit the Derbyshire Bonsai Stall. Dave the owner was brilliant, he was really friendly and informative and gave me lots of tips and advice on propagation and care for your plants. I’m to keep him informed on how I go on with my bonsai, a South African money tree.

And here’s the funky stuff that make Flower Shows special – seed sculptures, battling deer, warhorse and flower man! Speaking of deer we saw loads of fallow deer near the car park – always a great sight.

There’s so much to look at and lots of different categories and things to do; there’s the Garden Hideaways where sheds are designed very creatively, I liked the Inside Out one, now that was very clever. School gardens had a theme of musicals and I really liked the Lion King.

There was Back to Back Gardens which showed what you could do in a small space, such as a terraced house – I really liked the English Stumpery Garden.

And there was loads of things to do as we went on Family Day – pot a plant, storytelling, bubble man and bug hunt.

We had a great time and can’t wait to come back next year.