After a great spell of lovely weather, today brought a mix of rain and strong winds. This played havoc with the men’s singles tennis final at Wimbledon and no doubt has challenged exhibitors building their show gardens at the Hampton Court Flower Show which opens in less than 24 hours.

The largest and most popular of the RHS summer shows, the Hampton Court Flower Show runs from Tuesday 7th - Sunday 13th July in the stunning location of Henry VIII’s spectacular palace beside the River Thames. It offers 25 acres of flowers, gardens, displays, shopping and events and is much more relaxed than Chelsea. This is because it is aimed more at real gardeners rather than those who are concerned with the design and fashionable elements of creating a garden.

The sustainability and ethical responsibility of such an enormous show comes into question every year. To its credit, the RHS actively promotes the environmental aspects of gardens and the need to engage children and families.They have also announced that even tools that are broken in the service of making the show will be collected, repaired and reused, in an attempt to make this year’s show the greenest,

Environmental sustainability and re-cycling feature heavily as alternatives to traditional garden features. One of the most intriguing is the “underground” gardening group, Guerrilla Gardening, which is creating a show garden made entirely from the leftovers from other gardens.”Fighting the filth with forks and flowers” is the mantra for Guerilla Gardening, now a worldwide movement turning inner cities into greener, environmentally friendly places for residents to enjoy.http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

I am planning to visit the show at the weekend when hopefully the sun will be back and I can explore some of the environmental gardens and ideas.

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