Top trends from the Chelsea Flower Show 2009

Colour scheme: deep reds

summer,garden inspiration,days out,London,planting ideas Chelsea 09 HESCO Garden

Rich berry shades of deepest red and magenta are a popular colour choice, seen here in the HESCO garden from Leeds City Council, which focuses on raising awareness of the problems of flash flooding.

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Plants to pick: geraniums (such as Geranium phaeum), geums (such as Geum rivale \'Leonard\'s Variety\') and aquilegias

Colour scheme: barely black

summer,garden inspiration,days out,London,planting ideas Chelsea 09 Ace of Spades garden

Deep blues, purples, indigos - and even black is prevalent on the Chelsea plots - the darker the better. Black flowers add a note of mystery and elegance.

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Plants to pick: black mondo grass, or Ophiopogon planiscapus \'Nigrescens\' and black calla lilies (seen here in The Ace of Spades Garden), Iris chrysographes, tulip \'Queen of the Night\', aquilegia \'Black Barlow\'

Feathery foliage

summer,garden inspiration,days out,London,planting ideas afw Chelsea 09 Nature Ascending garden

Clouds of feathery, frothy foliage and flowers give a light, airy full-border feel without adding bulk.

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Plants to pick: bronze fennel, verbena bonariensis, grasses

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Left: the Ascending Nature garden

Geometric shapes

summer,garden inspiration,days out,London,planting ideas Chelsea09 Modern Rock Garden

Clean lines, sharply defined edges and cubic structures in a mix of materials with ordered planting gives a neat and tidy effect - and maybe a sense of control in a chaotic world

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Left: Modern Rock Garden

Show off your veg

summer,garden inspiration,days out,London,grow your own,planting ideas afw - Chelsea 09 Credit Munch Garden If you\'re growing your own, be proud of them, seems to be the message from Chelsea, with fruit and veg mixed in with more ornamental plantings, as in this Credit Munch front garden, where tomatoes and strawberries mingle happily with heuchera, sweet peas and more.

Vertical planting

summer,garden inspiration,small-space solutions,days out,London,planting ideas Chelsea 09 Fenchurch garden

Vertical planting is a useful way to hide an ugly wall, and blurs the borders of the garden. Living walls act as sound insulation, as well as providing a habitat for wildlife.

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Plants to pick: In the Fenchurch Garden, left, the walls are clothed in alchemilla mollis, grasses and sedums

Recycle it

summer,eco friendly,garden inspiration,days out,London,planting ideas afw Chelsea 09 The Key garden

Look at any allotment and you\'ll see ingenious ways to re-use objects.  The Key garden is made entirely from recycled materials, as you\'d expect of a garden that comes from the Eden Project.

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To find out more about the plants used and how you can achieve the look for yourself, visit www.edenproject.com

Running wild

summer,eco friendly,garden inspiration,days out,London,nature,watching wildlife,planting ideas Chelsea 09 Wild and Wonderful garden

Plants appear in profusion, with elements designed to attract wildlife to the garden. Careful control is less apparent, with plants spilling over everywhere. The Wild and Wonderful garden features herbs for the kitchen, storage of roof run-off weater and facilities for bats, hedgehogs and birds, as well as insects. The hedging and trees are chosen with wildlife in mind, to provide food and shelter.

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Plants to pick: Apple tree (Malus x robusta \'Red Sentinel\'), honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica \'Hlliana\'), buddleia \'New Dawn\' 

Popular plants: aquilegia

summer,garden inspiration,days out,London,planting ideas Chelsea09 Children\'s Society garden The deep claret colour and ruffled double petals of Aquilegia vulgaris var. Stellata \'Ruby Port\' was seen in the Laurent-Perrier Garden, and similar varieties of Granny\'s bonnet, or columbine, were

Working with wood

summer,garden inspiration,days out,London,planting ideas Chelsea09 Marshalls Living Street

This natural material was used in myriad ways: to define spaces, as wall cladding, for seating and as insect homes. Redwood featured as vertical wave forms in the Foreign & Colonial Investments\' Garden, and message-carrying totels in The Key, while slices of beech trunk were seats in Future Nature, and square arches in the front gardens of The Marshalls Living Street.

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Find more gardening inspiration here:

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