Blog of Ben

The above picture is one I took of the QR code ‘garden’. This garden was part of the ‘Fresh Gardens’ offering. I was not impressed with at all. Described as a “groundbreaking garden [which] unites cutting-edge technology and horticulture” the mind boggles to understand what exactly is cutting-edge about the garden. More like just cutting hedge.. I’m so funny. Everyone knows QR codes were sooo last year, or, to be honest, about 3 years ago. They are seriously lame and all this one did was direct to a website about the garden. There isn’t much else to say about this ‘garden’ apart from that it was a hedge of common ivy with a rather silly plastic QR code attached to it and a square of water below. Ok, so when something annoys me I tend to rant, but this garden was as pointless as QR codes are in Advertising. It was pointless and just appeared to look ‘trendy’ and ‘cool’. However, one positive out of this nonsense was the baffled look upon so many old lady’s faces! Reading something like “What on earth is it” “Bi-jove what a monstrosity”, “Ooo how modern” “The mind boggles” and “Where the heck did this come from and why”. 

,

Moving on, I took a ridiculous number of photos at The Chelsea Flower Show. The above is of the beautiful main pathway in the grounds, lined with stunning tall trees. I think I might have something similar on the lead up to my mansion one day. Anyhoo, if I jabbered about all of the photos I took, I would be here for a very long time and my blog would reach a new level of boring. So here’s a selection of snaps from the day that I thought were worth popping in. 



The above photo is of the popular L’Occitane garden, inspired by the landscape of Provence. This garden had a huge crowd of people around it. I thought the garden was pretty, however, because we could only view it from one angle it was hard to get a feel of what the garden was like without actually walking around it. A very charming garden though, that reeeally makes me want to go on holiday! 



I really liked these squiggly sculptures embedded amongst flower beds and against concrete walls. 

 

I thought the Homebase Teenage Cancer Trust garden had an quite an appealing urban feel.

 

Inside a marquee there was an eye catching array of chandeliers hung around a load of dangling shades of purple squares. A little bit odd but quite mesmerising. 

 

I loved David Harber’s sculptures and water fountains on show. 

 

My favourite was the above ‘Globe’ which appeared to be illuminated inside, but was actually just coated in a vibrant golden yellow colour. It looked very effective and caught my eye from a far.



I also thought this was quite a funky ad for an artificial grass company with ‘easy bug’ cars which were swamped in grass. It looked quite fun but they didn’t provide much information with the display so, in my opinion, missed an opportunity there. 



‘Celebrity’ Diarmuid created this beast of a ‘garden’ for the show. It was absolutely humungous. There wasn’t much elegance to it and all the scaffolding used made clanky noises in the breeze as though we were on a building site. This was basically just a PR stunt to get attention to the show, draw the crowds and get Diarmuid featured in the papers. It wasn’t very Chelsea and there really wasn’t much to it. But fair play to him for creating something that creates such a buzz and demands the attention of visitors and media alike. However, bearing in mind the size of the pyramid thingy I’m not suprised. Next year I would like to see a giant pig or perhaps a Corgi instead please. I think that would go down well. 



Maybe a giant dragon at Chelsea would be cool? This little guy looked fun. It would fit in with the surroundings of Chelsea in just the same unsuitable fashion. 



Right, jabbering over. I had a lovely afternoon/ evening with my wonderful Mother. A nice little treat on a sunny summer’s day in London.

To summarise: cake, music, shopping, flowers, pollen, more flowers, sneezing, even more flowers, lots of photos and a glass of Champagne to round off the day. Super. x