AWARD-winning local garden designer, James Fenneberg, will unveil a stunning Beautiful Border at BBC Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC Birmingham this week.
Much loved at BBC Gardeners’ World Events, the Beautiful Borders competition is designed to offer inspiration for small gardens and challenging spaces. At just 9m2, the small-space show gardens are packed with creative planting and design features. This year’s Beautiful Borders theme is ‘My Garden Escape’.
Corringham-based designer, James Fenneberg, has created Keep Off the Grass, a Beautiful Border designed to be, in his words, “a space of dangerous beauty”, featuring spiky Agave plants, volcanic black sand and rock to attract ground nesting wasps and bees, and contrasting planting.
James says: “I studied fine art and scenic painting, so as a relative newcomer to gardening, I draw upon my experience with colour and shape as the basis for my designs. I’m inspired by the fractal shapes, growth patterns and jewel like aesthetics in the formation of Agave plants.”
Rachel Poletti-Gadd, Portfolio Director – Gardening Division at Immediate Live, organisers of BBC Gardeners’ World Live, said: “Visitors flock to see the Beautiful Borders because they are literally bursting with creative, inspiring ideas than can be achieved at home. The Borders show that gardens don’t have to be large, costly or complicated to be full of colour and character, and that even the most challenging spaces, like a shady spot or a tricky corner, can be transformed with some imaginative design. We can’t wait to see James’s border in situ at BBC Gardeners’ World Live.”
BBC Gardeners’ World Live is a four-day extravaganza of garden inspiration, achievable take-home ideas and wonderful plants. Visitors can enjoy impressive Show Gardens, Beautiful Borders, competition gardens, and displays by specialist plant growers and nurseries in the Floral Marquee. The crème de la crème of gardening experts will be on stage at the BBC Gardeners’ World Live Theatre, with Monty Don, Adam Frost, Carol Klein, Frances Tophill and Alan Titchmarsh in conversation with Nicki Chapman, and sharing practical advice with the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine editors.
There are plant and garden shopping opportunities galore, garden kit tips at the Tool Shed demonstration area, and one-to-one gardening advice from plant experts and specialists at the Let’s Talk Plants Stage. New for 2023 is Hot Off the Potting Bench, a feature display of new plants and varieties, all vying to win the new Peter Seabrook Award for Best New Plant at BBC Gardeners’ World Live. At the House Plant Hub, indoor gardening experts, Ellen Mary, Joe Bagley and friends will be sharing their secrets for happy, healthy house plants.
Tickets for BBC Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC Birmingham (15-18 June) are on sale now at www.bbcgardenersworldlive.com, transaction fee applies. Tickets include entry to the BBC Good Food Show Summer which features demonstrations, workshops and interviews with culinary stars including James Martin, Nadiya Hussain, Michel Roux and Ainsley Harriott, plus street food, and delicious food and drink to taste and buy.
