* I was provided a pair of tickets to the Gardeners’ World Spring Fair and therefore are marking posts from my visit as 'Ad’ - as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

The Secret Garden by Hillier was a central feature of this year’s Spring Fair, inspired by The Secret Garden. It promised to be enclosed by high hedges, and the entrance was through part of this hedge, the design was said to encourage visitors to get up close and personal with the plants displayed, and that was the case, as much as you can at these kind of events.

Unsurprisingly it was a popular feature of the show and it was pretty busy when we visited but generally people gave each other space to enjoy and explore the garden which was absolutely full of plants.

On the right as we entered was the border containing the Himalayan Birch trees and hostas, which was getting much less attention than the border opposite. This area was designed to be more contemporary and included the low-maintenance brilliant white trunked trees. The hostas among the trees represented a ‘sea of foliage’ as a contrast to the colours opposite.

It was nice, but quite understated and in complete contrast to the larger section of the garden, which as you can see, was a lot more interesting.

green and pinks of herbaceous perennials and shrubs in cool whites and purples

Looking through the foxgloves and roses towards the hornbeam hedge at the boundary to two large terracotta pots

The border full of herbaceous perennials and shrubs start with whites and purples and go through the spectrum of colours, the idea for the design was to move through the softer, delicate colours to intense and vibrant shades to depict the sun’s movement during the day.

the colour palette of this border changes from purples to pinks in the corner of the garden

The vivid pink Judas tree steals the show and fills this frame with pink, purple and lilac flowers surrounding it

One of the plants stealing the show was the bright pink Judas tree - isn’t it stunning? I think we’ll see more of these, and I’ve already spotted that some of the RHS Chelsea gardens are using them. I know I’d be happy to have one in my garden!

Along the back border the colours changed to the more intense and vibrant colours, with fiery reds and oranges and yellows, representing a bright sunset, and a beautiful end to the day.

The planting changes colours again, this time to yellows, oranges and reds with a table a chairs set among the planting

low level planting at the front of the border with oranges, yellows and red plants

Looking back at these photos it’s much more obvious than I remember at the time, though this is most likely because of sharing the space with more people than you would normally share a garden with, so it was much harder to look at the garden as a whole. However the photos allow that, and the planting is really rather special.

A terracotta pot with stones and water close to another area with grass and cushions as a place to relax

My other hot tip is shallow pots complete with pebbles and water - we saw these in more than one garden at the Spring Fair, and it’s something that’s easy to replicate at home, so I think we’ll see more simple water features in our gardens, and that can only be a good thing.

We’ve had quite a week, and quite honestly, where to start. For the first time in what seems like a long time we had a short break staying in a hotel (rather than self-catering) and one that wasn’t in the Midlands or the north of England. We bucked the trend (sorry!), our own trend that is and headed down to Hampshire with visits to Exbury Gardens and the Gardeners’ World Spring Fair at Beaulieu, and planning to fit in a walk in the New Forest at some point.

There was so much to see, and consequently so many photos to edit before sharing, and then back home a visit to Grand Designs Live over at Excel has just added to it all. So not really knowing where to start, I’m sharing our hotel - The White Buck at Burley - which was just what we needed. It was so nice to get away and have a complete break, and we had a great stay and spotted plenty of bucks in the decor.

A statue of a deer above the reception and an antler light

But done in a way that wasn’t kitsch. I mean who could resist a stag candlestick?

There were some great furnishings in the bar area too, a good reminder that patterns and plains can give a traditional style a modern twist.

A leather seat and patterned buttoned back curved seat in the bar area

The look and feel continued through to our room too, with the reclaimed wood and neutral palette with pops of colour. Here they came from the bedside tables and the scatter cushions, where the material was also used on the chairs.

The wall behind the large grey headboard was clad with textured wood, pops of colour from the bedside lights and the patterned throw cushions

A chair covered in black and white material with pops of colour for the butterflies

The artwork in our room was also stag based, and these two stags looked over us. The brown one (on the left) had a pattern of fir trees on its body, the right (the blue) was just a bit more random, but both worked in the room and actually gave me an idea for a future craft project - another one to add to the list!

Two pictures on the wall of not quite white bucks

I was also taken with the prismatic-type stags head artwork also in our room. So simple, but so effective, understated but impactful.

Artwork - a prismatic / geometric representation of a white buck's head

I’ll share more about our trip, and our visit to Exbury Gardens, the Spring Fair, a brief visit to the National Trust’s Mottisfont and our day at Grand Designs Live and more soon, I just need to get myself a plan as there’s lots to share!