Today I went to Edinburgh to visit the Gardening Scotland Show, a festival of everything gardening related on from Fri 3rd – Sun 5th of June. I’d never been along before so didn’t know what to expect, lets just say I didn’t come back empty handed!

But before I talk about my purchases and my plans for them (which will be tomorrow’s blog) I wanted to highlight some of the show gardens I particularly enjoyed.

Hive Jive

This was the show garden created by students from SRUC (Scottish Rural College) which celebrated bees and pollinating insects. The garden showed visitors what they could do to try and make their gardens bee friendly.

The decline of bees is a particular hot topic and I recently learnt some particularly shocking bee related facts, did you know that without bees 80% of our plants would die?!

The features I liked from this garden was the planting combinations, not only did it look amazing but all the plants were carefully chosen to be pollen and nectar rich. In addition to that the colours chosen were that of a bee’s visible spectrum. Then there were the side walls which were created to mimic a honeycomb structure. Each one of these were cleverly turned into bug hotels.

I love how this garden was created to inform and inspire. I myself like to think of how my planting can benefit bees and wildlife and I will definitely be taking some of the design ideas into my own garden.

Pallet Gardens

In addition to the larger show gardens there were lots of different pallet gardens which had been created by schools and local community groups. My particular favourite was by Saltoun Primary School. They combined a bug hotel with a rooftop canopy of wildlife encouraging blooms. Not only was this another great idea to encourage pollinators but it was the perfect idea of how you can create a really effective garden in such a small place!

If you are thinking of investing in some new plants for your garden, why not step back for a few minutes and consider how you could help save the life of the bee!

Camilla-Erika x

(All photographs have been taken by Camilla-Erika Campbell)