BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair
The Beautiful Borders are compact, 9m2 show gardens, bursting with creative design features and imaginative planting. These colourful mini masterpieces are always a popular highlight at BBC Gardeners’ World events, providing visitors with endless inspiration and take-home ideas, particularly for small or challenging garden spaces.
Creating a Beautiful Border is a fantastic opportunity to gain show garden experience at a large-scale pubilc event and to showcase your skills to a large, enthusiastic audience. Whether you’re a design or landscaping professional, a first-time designer or student, or a gardening club, community group or charity, BBC Gardeners’ World events’ friendly and experienced horticultural team support entrants every step of the way, from application to final build. Twelve bursaries worth £200 each are available to Spring Fair applicants for plants and props.
The creative theme for the 2025 Beautiful Borders competiton is ‘Cultivating Connections’, inspired by the power of garden spaces, no matter how small, to foster meaningful connections of all kinds. Whether it’s connecting cultures, species, generations or communities, or deepening our relationship with nature, education or mental wellbeing, the organisers are looking for small spaces with big impact.
Entries are assessed on site by esteemed professional assessors, with medals for all and awards presented for Best Beautiful Border, Best Interpretation of the Theme, and Best Subscriber Border for the best design by a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine subscriber. Event visitors have their say too, voting for their favourite Border in the Peoples’ Choice award.
Lucy Tremlett, Event Director at Immediate Live, organisers of BBC Gardeners’ World events, said: “We – and our visitors – never cease to be impressed at the creativity that goes into the Beautiful Borders. The designs are not only technically brilliant with an eye-catching aesthetic, but really come from the heart, often reflecting a designer’s personal story, journey or experience. Gardens are wonderful spaces to bring human beings and nature together, so the Cultivating Connections theme should inspire some really strong entries. We can’t wait to see them!”
Winners of the ‘best in show’ Beautiful Border and a Platinum award at the BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair 2024 were Southampton-based garden designers Andrew Williamson and Laura Hall. Their Border, Together, was inspired by the supportive space provided for people affected by cancer at Maggie’s Southampton.
Winner of the Best BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Subscriber Border was Salisbury garden designer, David Long, for Memory Lane – Grandfather’s Garden, inspired by the designer’s earliest gardening memories. Best Interpretation of the Theme (‘Share My Space’) was awarded to Pamela Barden from Painted Fern Garden Design in Woking for The Synthesis Border, a design featuring nectar-rich plant species and nature-friendly highlights.
To enter a Beautiful Border for the BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair 2025, download the application form and find full details, including bursary information, at www.bbcgardenersworldfair.com. Applications close on 23 January 2025.
Tickets for the BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair 2025 are on sale now at www.bbcgardenersworldfair.com and include access to Beaulieu’s extensive grounds, gardens and attractions, like the National Motor Museum and Palace House. Headline sponsor Hillier’s garden feature will be a major attraction with its plant advice pods and extensive retail area. New for 2025 is The Spring Table, an exciting space offering seasonal food, drink and décor workshops, hosted by broadcaster Chris Bavin and featuring guest chefs and mixologists from the Lime Wood and Pig hotels.
Further highlights include more inspiring Showcase Gardens, College Competition gardens and the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Stage featuring BBC Gardeners’ World presenters, Adam Frost, Carol Klein and Arit Anderson with the Magazine’s editors. There are hands-on floristry and mushroom growing masterclasses, drop-in conversations with gardening personalities, Plant Expert Tours of Beaulieu’s Victorian kitchen and ornamental gardens, and plenty of plant and garden shopping. The Spring Fair’s Good Food Market offers a delicious array of street food and artisan produce to taste, tipple and take home, with plenty of live music to kick back to.
www.bbcgardenersworldfair.com
