There is something for everyone in this year's clutch of show gardens, from fantasy and romance (new designers The Dragon's Garden, GW11, and Enchanting Escape, GW3, Thailand: Garden of Serenity, GW6) to preserving and enjoying our heritage and environment (Pastures Bye, GW9, The Growing Tastes Allotment Garden, C60).

I shall also be interested to see Tony Smith's design for Quilted Velvet (GW1), if only for its mini plantation of 30,000 seedling oak trees, planted like carpet bedding on the Quilted Velvet plot. The company message – that for every tree it uses, three new trees are planted – is probably the key factor here but for those of you with woodland as part of your garden, there could be an idea here for yours.

A living roof – a device that has been in strong evidence at Chelsea for the last couple of years, for example in Mark Gregory's 2008 garden, – makes its appearance on the Sadoline Nature to Nurture Garden (GW4) by Philippa Pearson. Look out for some beautiful planting and ideas on how to create a designed, natural-looking garden.

If you are not yet a beekeeper then take a look at what promises to be a rather beautiful solution to the problem of how to create a garden that works for both man and bee (pictured). Designed by new-to-show designer Nicola Hills for South Lakes Hotels in partnership with Damson Design (GW2), this could well be the kitchen garden we would all love.

See which small gardens to look out for at this year's show.

Back to our preview of this year's show.

WORDS ARABELLA ST JOHN PARKER
ILLUSTRATION A BEEKEEPER'S GARDEN, BY NICOLA HILLS (GW2)