I made a beeline for Gold medal winner Buglife’s B-Lines Garden to get some ideas for creating a small, urban bee paradise, including the attractive wooden bee towers. I also loved some of the tiny spaces designed by newly qualified garden designers, like Brian Bloodglut (pictured with me above) to demonstrate the scope of the Asteraceae family of flowering plants, including his Brian &the Blooms For the Birds garden. It’s amazing how many different Asteraceae he has crammed into such a tiny space. And the Flower Power Field below (right) was cool too, The Pollen Station in the Money Saving Garden was a reminder how important it is to vote for Nature in a General Election, which was the day after my visit.

I wasn’t the only one who loved the Making Sense Garden, above left. It won the People’s Choice Award for best Get Started Gardens.

Discovered a new flower in the Buglife garden – an African thistle (Berkheya purpurea) and I love the way that Kent Wildflower Seeds plant wildflowers, like Bird’s-foot trefoil and Clover, in pots we you would an ornamental plant.

Due to the dismal drizzle and cold, few bees were foraging on the lovely flower displays. However I did come across a lovely metal sculpture of a bumblebee, and some fun bees created by Manor Park primary school along with barrels filled with bee-friendly plants.

For all the information about the show winners, trends and plants here