Was RHS Badminton totally awful?

Here’s a photo trip for you, with commentary.

A long long plod from the car park in the heat: but think: it could have been pouring with rain. (We should be so lucky)

Arrival, and, gardens….and people…..and posts

Am I going to show you all the gardens? No. We were mostly shut out (not always!) and peering in from behind barriers. At the fussy planting which passes for lovely. Lots of achillea. I have a friend who likes those.

Posts were a thing. Are a thing? Have I missed this? I like having words on them.

These had interesting marks from the casting.

IT WAS HOT. A stream was good to look at.

This makes a change from an auricula or similar theatre, We need to update that thing a bit. Though not sure about this version….

It’s kind of odd, queuing to visit a garden and walking round in a line. The Archers (our very own Jo Thompson’s) was popular.

IT WAS HOT. And there was the inevitable shortage of seats. Even if you paid for them by buying food. There was also a shortage of shade (less predictable) so people sat on the ground wherever there was some. We were SO pleased to have brought our fans.

And people even squeezed into the shade of a tent. That’s what that line of people is.

There was a large tent full of tat followed by outdoor corridors of tat.

and more gardens

And little posts, with achillea. (Those were ‘keep out’ posts)

And there was Great British Gardens in a tent! (this is ‘influencing’, otherwise known as advertising, because GBG is master minded by a friend of ours, and Veddw Garden is, of course, one of the Great British Gardens.)

If you are reading this in an email, you are about to be cut off. You could try the app or website, or sigh in relief and watch the tennis.

IT WAS HOT and dry.

Someone was talking in a tent, where people could gratefully sit down.

It’s strange - there is no halfway house. You are regarded as fully fit, so able to walk miles and miles in a heatwave, or you can be in a buggy or wheelchair. Some of us are a bit inbetweenish.

And then, YES! PLANTS!

In a huge tent. I heard that Chelsea was short of plant exhibitors. Not so at Badminton. Many many superb nursery displays - and you could buy. A big shop! Though I think some people were inhibited by the thought of the long hot desert between them and their car…..

Look at this! Begonia splendour.

IT WAS HOT and there was nowhere to sit. Not a single sodding seat. Anywhere. Quick dose of painkiller..

Lots of useful labels:

And then, the triumph of the show: the Julia Rausing Garden by Tom Stuart Smith.

Brilliant. A demonstration of just what plants and place can do in the hands of an artist. My photographs first: (there are loads, I was in love)

I wish I could have sat down and studied it. (People, put more seats in your gardens!) And some parts were roped off. Why?

And then the long trail back to the car, accompanied by panic: where was the car??? Why didn’t we make sure we’d be able to find it?? What if we were going in totally the wrong direction???

Then, the traffic jam home……….

Where’s it’s HOT. That’s it, folks.

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Veddw House Garden will be open on the first and second Sundays in July, August and September. There are LOTS of seats!

Address Veddw House Garden, The Fedw, Devauden, Monmouthshire NP16 6PH

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