The wonderful Chelsea Flower Show starts today and if you didn’t manage to get tickets, or find it all a little bit ‘shampoo and set from the Home Counties.’ it might be worth checking out the Chelsea Fringe, which takes place at different venues across London and around the country. Entirely independent but supported by the RHS, the Fringe features everything from grassroots community garden projects to avant-garde art installations and is less about winning prizes and more about giving people the freedom and opportunity to express themselves through plants and gardening.
There are over 100 eclectic events, which include pop up skip gardens, Knit your own vege a garden inspired Dog Show, and an Urbanfarmacy, which aims to encourage the local community in Kingston to grow herbs and seasonal fresh food, through a collaboration between Saffron Organic and Transition Town Kingston. There’s even a Gnome Invasion, where the residents of Ockendon Road N1 will paint a garden gnomes and place them the tree pit gardens and window ledges of the street.
Design Company Squint and one of our favourite online garden shops The Balcony Gardener will create a ‘A Museum of Terrariums’ in Squint’s basement courtyard of their South Kensington showroom, featuring a collection of magical miniature worlds and a selection of The Balcony Gardener’s container gardens and window boxes.
Chelsea Cool.