'A Border with a Buzz' - Belvoir Castle Flower & Garden Show

'A Border with a Buzz'  

Belvoir Castle Flower & Show Garden 

Last month I undertook my very first show border at Belvoir Castle Flower & Garden Show, where I was delighted to have received the 'Professional's Award' selected by David Domoney.

The concept of the garden is centred around Bumblebees.  Having worked closely with the bumblebee conservation trust to design a space that would be solely focused on these little creatures, the garden aimed to raise awareness, provoke conversations and showcase key pollinators. The garden was designed to be replicated across homes across the UK, whether that's in pots, balconies or gardens. 

A border with a 'buzz' was designed to raise awareness of the humble bumblebee, which remain in critical decline across the UK. Bumblebees, unlike Honey Bees perform 'buzz pollination' which support vital pollination of most of our fruit and vegetables. Shockingly, over 25,000 bumblebee colonies are imported from Europe's by UK farmers each year to support pollination of their crops due to the decline in population of British bumblebees. 

 Over 270 species of bumblebee exist in the UK, many of which solitary and are extremely fragile, facing the real possibility of extinction. Countryside borders could therefore be a vital habitat for our British bumblebees, providing rich sources of pollen, but also potential habitats and nesting sites. 

The border aim to raise awareness of our wild bumblebees and encourage the use of pollinators in future borders, gardens and planting palettes to support this critical species, which all of us rely on in one way or another to provide a source of food. 

The design of the garden originated back in January, where I spent the cold winter evenings doodling, researching and learning more about these tiny, but fascinating creatures. However the hard work started once I was selected and needed to refine my planting palette. Sourcing plants, knowing where to buy them and when to buy them were all steep learning curves, as I needed to ensure everything was looking it's best for that one weekend. Unfortunately I had bought a few too early.. with lots of the Lavendula's peaking too early,  and my two key Ceanothus plants flowering and finishing before the show! However, after some last minute swaps I had my plants ready to go and swapped the Ceanothus to Escallonia's which ended up stealing the show! 

Below I have set out the full planting palette: 

• Escallonia 'Pink Elle' 
• Nepta 'six hills giant' 
• Salvia Amistad 
• Salvia guaranitica 'Black & Bloom'
• Digitalis 'Pink Panther 
• Digitalis Purpurea 
• Lavendula Angustifolia 'Breeze white' 
• Lavendula Angustifoila 'Breeze pink

Here are some photos of the Garden from the weekend. I was delighted to have spent the weekend meeting so many new and likeminded people and I would thoroughly recommend taking the leap and applying next year. 

The garden was sponsored by the London College of Garden Design, as part of their borders competition and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. 

I hope this has inspired you to apply to next year's Garden Show as I thoroughly enjoyed my experience.. I think I have definitely caught the show garden bug! 

Emma :-)