A day out at Belvoir Castle Flower and Garden Show 2025
Is there a better way to spend a sunny Saturday than with a walk around some beautiful gardens and a visit to a flower show? I say not! This weekend I donned my sunhat, slapped on the suncream and headed over to Belvoir Castle Flower and Garden Show for the first time.
One of the highlights for me was the Borders Competition where local garden designers and CICs showcased their responses to this year’s brief on the theme of Countryside Borders with a focus on pollinators.
‘Seeking Solace’ was a brilliant example of how design and planting can work in harmony to portray a message. In this instance the design reinforced the power and influence a green space can have on a persons mental health and general wellbeing, with dark and rigid structures portraying someone in turmoil juxtaposed against the calming, soft, pastel-hued planting scheme.
Building on the theme of mental health is the border by Guidance and Growth CIC. Guidance and Growth CIC is a community focused organisation dedicated to improving mental health, wellbeing and social connection through hands-on activities like gardening and woodworking. They create safe supportive spaces where people – particularly men – can learn new skills, connect with others, and contribute to projects that benefit their communities and the environment. Whether its building raised beds, planting vegetables, or crafting in the workshop, everything they do is rooted in growth of people, places and possibilities. Their border showcased what they do, taking overgrown spaces and turning them to usable green spaces. It also showed the two sides of mental health, with an overgrown portion representing low, dark times, and the flowers in full bloom and well-tended vegetable patch showing the better mental health days.
On a lighter note we have ‘The Volunteers of Belvoir Garden’ which was designed to showcase the work of the garden volunteers at Belvoir Castle (a hardworking bunch if the beautiful gardens are anything to go by!). The planting was chosen to represent the formal gardens, where volunteers work throughout the year (and in all weathers) weeding, pruning, deadheading and planting. Anyone who has seen the rose gardens at Belvoir Castle will recognise the David Austin roses, interplanted with a range of complementary herbaceous perennials. The lavender edging provides glorious scent and colour and a single dark leaved Acer plays tribute to the wider arboreal landscape. A section of the garden is left unplanted… it’s the volunteers’ tea break!
Next up was my personal favourite, ‘An Alternative to Astroturf’, a concept garden created by Carina Park. In her own words Carina says of the garden: “As a gardener of 15 years I have seen the change in our weather, climate and fundamentally, people’s attitude to their outside space. Grass and trees are being replaced with astroturf and porcelain and there is no space for the wildlife of Britain.” She continues: “Our bird population alone is down 40% due to lack of habitat and that is why I created Garden Elements. One garden at a time we are fighting to change the rhetoric. We encourage our clients to stay away from chemicals, to create compost heaps, use bug friendly planting and leave secret areas of nettles and weeds for butterflies and insects.”
This garden combines the key elements of a beautiful but low maintenance patch: a bird bath and drinking pool, drought tolerant plants, grasses to create hiding places for wildlife, and a ‘rainscape’ - a way to direct water when there is a heavy downpour.
Belvoir Castle Flower and Garden Show is an annual event which takes places at Belvoir Castle near Grantham.