Most people can agree that David Beckham is easy on the eyes and, unsurprisingly, the same can be said of his garden. The beloved soccer player's outdoor space is filled to the brim with innovation. From his highly effective vegetable garden to his stunning greenhouse, it is a practical treasure trove of garden design inspiration.
One of the most notable elements of the garden idea is the most understated: the planting on the pathway to Beckahm's greenhouse. While it looks unassuming, these budding lavender plants have numerous benefits for his yard. It is beautiful, helps his vegetables grow, and is easy to maintain.
'Using lavender to create a beautiful border, whether that’s in a flower bed or to landscape a pathway, as the Beckhams’ have done, is a wonderful idea - and especially in a vegetable garden,' says Rachel Bull, master gardener and Head of Gardens at H&G.
She continues, 'Lavender is a magnet for bees, and by attracting bees in droves they will help to pollinate all your vegetable crops, resulting in successful harvests. Lavender plants are also incredibly hardy, drought-tolerant and will thrive in very poor soil.'
Rachel is a gardening writer, flower grower and floral designer. Her journalism career began 15 years ago on Country Living magazine, sparking a love of container gardening and wild planting. After more than a decade writing for and editing a range of consumer, business and special interest titles, Rachel became editor of floral art magazine The Flower Arranger. She then trained and worked as a floral designer and stylist in London for six years, and has created floral installations at iconic London venues including Kew Gardens, the Barbican and Peckham's Asylum Chapel.
Furthermore, lavender is a perfect planting choice for David and Victoria Beckham's practice of keeping chickens. 'Usefully for the Beckhams, lavender is one of the very few plants that chickens tend to avoid eating,' says Bull. She continues, 'They might have a peck at it, but they usually leave it alone, and it has even been known to have a calming effect on chickens. So, once their beautiful pathway border is established, no harm will come to it on account of their resident hens.'
Luckily, the lavender landscaping technique is incredibly replicable. Bull states: 'This look is very simple to recreate. You can plant smaller shrubs in the fall, which will take root in the ground over winter, ready to bloom the following year. Or, you can buy larger, more established plants that are in flower from your local garden center now, and plant them at regular intervals, roughly 20 inches apart. You might want to add some gravel to your soil to improve drainage if you live in an area with higher than average rainfall.'
She continues, 'Lavender plants don’t really need fertilizing and are low maintenance for most of the year, though you will need to prune them in late fall once the flowers have all died off. This will encourage beautiful, fresh growth the following spring, and stop the plants getting too woody and unwieldy.'
If you're thinking of recreating David Beckham's planting technique, you'll need lavender plants, and this is one of the best deals we've seen. At just under $7.50 a plant, it's a steal.
David Beckham's planting technique is the perfect example of how you don't have to sacrifice style for function. A few lavendar plants, and you're good to go.
