Although there's not been a post here for a while,  We wanted to take this opportunity to let those of you who are interested in gardening more generally know that you can now follow the BBC's Gardening Blog, where Alys Fowler, Bob Flowerdew and Jim McColl share their expertise regularly.

This blog will now be closing fully. We'd like to thank you all for your comments and wish you a happy impending flower show season.

During my more 'sane' moments this week, these are some of the things which gave me most pleasure, in addition to the floral marquee. I particularly admired the flower beds - especially Noah's Ark and the Stoke on Trent to Patagonia bed.

The Visionary Gardens, although not my personal favourites were very much a talking point. I think the category could potentially be extended - even if it is a bit 'Emperor's New Clothes'.

A real highlight for me has been the introduction of the Fruit and Vegetable section, which inspired a great deal of interest among adults and children alike. I hope this section returns and extends next year!

By the way, this is where you could often find me this week, writing my blog in the shelter for rain or sunshine in the Tatton Tent!'

So as 4pm and the great sell off approaches, it's 'hold on to your plants', watch out for walking hanging baskets and here we go for next year!

Alongside the plates of beetroots and carrots are handy tips for the aspiring exhibitor. Advice like '..to get good colour in your beetroots, water the row with a solution of 10ml of salt in a gallon of water 2 weeks before harvest' or 'after washing your carrots, wrap them in damp kitchen paper and keep them cool - good colour is worth 3 or 4 points', could make all the difference.

The fruit exhibits impressed me most - it was painful looking at huge, luscious black cherries 'Summer Sun' and not being able to taste them. I've never tried the strange looking 'doughnut' peaches, but was assured they are very sweet, have white flesh and a very small stone, 'Saturn' was the variety on show. One allotment society from Yealmhampton near Plymouth had a fantastic display that included a pineapple!

Very helpful fruit enthusiasts from the Northern Fruit Group (www.northernfruitgroup.com ) are on hand to give advice and answer questions. I found out how to prune a reluctant gooseberry and Clifford from Fruitscape told me there was no excuse for not growing lots of fruit in my small London garden.

Where some shows have a small table devoted to each one, at Tatton they do things differently, grouping all the plants together to make displays of mixed plant types from all the different exhibitors. The effect is a great display which really relates to everyday gardens, and shows that anyone can be a national collection holder and still have an interesting and varied garden.

For me the best part of the marquee was the stall, manned by groups from across the north of England and featured a wonderful mixture of different perennials, vegetables and houseplants all grown by the members themselves. Each plant was lovingly grown and labelled, and sold with the helpful advice of the person that propagated it. The effect was like a giant garden fete and certainly offered something for everyone. I was in my element buying far too many plants. Oh well at least I'll be able to take some cuttings and bring some plants back for them to sell next year.

At Tatton there are gabions in the show gardens, in the back to backs and on the trade stands - people are taking home DIY versions!

Basically a gabion is a metal - usually steel, cage filled with stones/rocks or various heavy materials. They are usually used to retain soil in banks and terraces or as barriers. I've seen taller, slim ones used as a wall and smaller, cubed ones made into seats - the permutations are endless, as demonstrated by the two young designers of the Visionary garden, Cubed3, at this year's Tatton.

This gold medal winning design is a modular scheme, gabions are linked together like building blocks and used in different ways - some are filled with rocks as foundations, some are filled with soil and planted and some are placed in the pond, allowing you to walk over the water's surface. Larger cages have been left empty and plants are able to grow up through them - it's very effective.

On the Edible Trends garden the Reaseheath College team have filled their gabions with carefully placed layers of stones and wood in decreasing sizes, creating a very pleasing pattern and a haven for wildlife. Apparently it took them ages to do but it looks fantastic.

A very 'green' way to fill your gabions is with odd bits of bricks, slates and tiles left over from building jobs, plus any empty bottles you may have accumulated. This is what they have used on A Place for Waste, another gold medal winning garden.

As you look around the show you will see all sorts of shapes and fillings and gabions used in many ways. I am feeling quite inspired and am planning to try something with sempervivums and I rather like the idea of turf cubes.

The garden has been a great success with the public. It's also been enhanced this week by the presence of the Cheshire Poet Laureate, W. Terry Fox, reading landscape inspired poetry: his own, some from local school Manor Park Primary in Knutsford and even poems from would-be bards among Tatton staff!

Mingling in and out of the crowds all week have been many gardening celebrities, including two 'bits of lads' I knew when they were students: namely Joe Swift and Toby Buckland. It was good to catch up on old times - though they reckon they are not so old.

Finally we met up with Gilly, chief blogger for this event!

So all it remains is to dismantle everything early next week, put everything in store and continue to plan for next year. See you then!

Sue tells me that her nursery (www.lodgelane.co.uk) is coming along well, it's hard work and not very lucrative as yet, but she loves it and is building a strong client base. Ideally she would like to concentrate on the nursery work in the spring and summer and write in the winter - sounds perfect.

The show garden she has created with her co-designer Isabelle Brooke is the sort of garden that we all wish offices would provide for their workers - a lovely, plant filled space for eating, meetings and getting away from your desk when you're having a bad day! It's quite a big garden, double the size of the other back to backs and I wondered if Sue and Isabelle would be having a go at a big show garden, at Chelsea perhaps? Given their progress so far, I wouldn't be surprised.

If you fancy following in Sue's footsteps and taking part in BBC Gardener of the Year download an application form today and send it in before next Wednesday.

Once again their display was awarded gold, and I have to admit that it was very striking so I could see why. While nobody is going to create an arrangement on anything like this scale at home, there were some nice plant combinations of orchids and exotic foliage that would look great on anyone's dining table.

While wandering through the display my eyes were also drawn to a large exhibit created by North Warwickshire and Hinckley College that has been inspired by the planets of the solar system. Very apt considering it was only a few days ago, that we were all celebrating the anniversary of the first moon landings. Each of the planets were created in different colours, with red anthuriums for Mars and equisetum strands for the rings of Saturn. At the centre of the display the Sun was created with a stream of exotic orange and yellow arum and some kangaroo paw cascading down like flares radiating out from the centre.

It's a back to back designed to show how a small space can be productive and child friendly yet still look modern and stylish. As Sharon points out, a fruit garden was the obvious choice - growing veg is hard work if you are a working mother. Her children are three and five and she runs her own gardening business.

For children, having things like strawberries and apples ready to pick and eat in their own garden is wonderful. No boring digging and cooking involved, it's instant food. Sharon has some great ideas for fun ways to grow fruit ( www.theplantswoman.co.uk). I particularly like the idea of making a wigwam of poles and growing thornless raspberries and/or blackberries over it, a few strawberry plants round the outside and the kids have a fruity den.

Fruit growing involves much less day to day management than most vegetables and the rewards are high. You plant the trees or bushes and they will crop year after year, with increasing yields.

It's these increasing yields that bother Sharon, so much goes to waste, particularly apples and pears. She has had the bright idea to initiate Fruitshare the aim being, to make surplus fruit available to others.

She has nominated the 24th/25th October as Fruitshare weekend. People who want to take part can register their address and those who want fruit can come round and get it. You could either put your excess fruit in bags outside your house or have an open day and have a bit of a party. Sounds like a fruity date for the diary!

But it's a plantaholic's prerogative to change their mind. So I must confess I was secretly delighted to discover at Tatton what could become my ideal houseplant.
The Hawaiian palm (brighamia) is not so much a jungle escapee desperately pining for the rainforest - it's more of an endangered species in need of fostering. Raised from seed by Dutch nursery Plant Planet, these beautiful plants can be grown happily in your living room. And as there are only seven specimens left in the wild, the IUCN is desperate to bring attention to them.

That's a pretty good reason to grow one. They need little watering and have the added bonus of flowering in deepest, darkest winter. I think I have the perfect spot in mind.

Camilla Phelps, Gardening Editor

This year, for the first time, there was a special competition for young designers under 25 from the north-west region. Two finalists were selected and invited to build gardens that were to be judged alongside the other show gardens and awarded RHS medals. Next year the Young Designer of the Year competition goes national and there will be three lucky garden-builders having a go.

Lee Belgrau is a student at Reaseheath College and his design, 'Red Rhythm', was one of the two chosen this year.

I think it's stunning - one of the most accomplished here. Lee says that his inspiration came from the shiny red posts that are the first thing you notice, rising up out of a beautiful raised bed. The five verticals are continued horizontally across a broad path of rough cut blocks of slate - creating a satisfying contrast of textures.

He has carried the red into the planting. It's vibrant and sophisticated; Crocosmia 'Lucifer', Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff' and dark Helenium 'Moerheim Beauty' lead the way. On the shadier side of the path, large specimens of Photinia 'Red Robin' and Astilbe 'Burgundy Red' continue the theme. I like the way that Lee has designed the garden with young clients in mind, it's ideal for a smaller, urban space, perfect for socialising.

Lee got a well-deserved Gold medal, a fantastic achievement for his first show garden. He has demonstrated that good design is about scale, function, harmony and, of course, rhythm. I shall be looking out for his name at future shows and I'm also quite tempted to look out for some shiny red posts...

Of course now that the medal's been awarded there's no stopping me; I've already got a great idea for next year!

But against such odds, they have all delivered a fantastic flower show, sunshine bright with colour. And somehow, against the wet, slate-coloured skies, the plants of high summer seem all the more vibrant. From show gardens to nursery stands, the stars of the show are easily gem-like crocosmias in a glorious range of orange shades from tangerine to gold; flat heads of raspberry ripple achilleas are also stand out performers.

But my favourite plant combination today was the gorgeously delicate Agrostis nebulosa with Astrantia 'Roma' - a fuzzy cloud of bronze grass with jewel-like blooms just peeping through, unfazed by the downpours, raindrops glistening prettily as the sun re-emerged.

Camilla Phelps, Gardening Editor

If you prefer things a bit paler then the yellow theme, used by Phillipa Probert in her office courtyard entitled 'Revolution'. This would be a welcome retreat for any office worker, taking time out from the stresses of work to relax among the pastel plantings of white agapanthus and pale yellow anthemis.

Sticking with the single colour theme, the bright orange colours of 'Lose the Shoes' are the perfect antidote to a grey day (and today was very grey). Here, designer Bernie Quinn has carefully woven together bright orange crocosmia, geum and dark flowered Cosmos atrosanguineus, the perfect complement to the vibrant orange walls.

We had a 'near miss' Saturday when one of my staff lost his footing on the top of the cave and nearly disappeared -just managing to save himself at the last moment.

Last minute tasks are in hand: putting in the posts to hold the rope to prevent marauding crowds from surging forward and destroying the garden; final positioning of the skull and bones; briefing of the staff on the plants, plan and the final tweak on the garden itself.

The judges' scouts have already been about. They are the ones who try to ascertain what medal an exhibitor deserves and also to warn what 'horrors' or otherwise they may face at the next exhibit.

I nearly missed meeting up with them as they were earlier than their allotted time and I was busy helping someone across the other avenue.

However it all worked out in the end and I think I may get a 'highly commended'. Watch this space!