Nope, it's not Chelsea. It's Bencard Gardens, year five

I didn't make it to the Chelsea Flower Show this year. If I had, I would have enjoyed some of the warmest, sunniest days in my history of attendance. I chose, instead, to enjoy my own garden. As my patch enters its fifth full summer since being carved out of the featureless stretch of a new build's back yard, I can proclaim myself satisfied. 

I'm getting the hang of the light and soil conditions. My anchor plants have bedded in. (Well over half my plants ... and the vast majority of those big, showy anchors ... come from Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants. I'm incredibly lucky to have this nationally-famous grower a short drive away.)  My hard landscaping has softened. Chelsea week is a great time for taking stock, so here's an inventory of how my little patch of the green and pleasant land is coming on.

The pond continues to be the heart of the garden and is now fairly self sufficient, with four types of waterlily, grasses, iris, oxygenators and other marginal plants sharing space with fish and frogs. Much of my inspiration and all my best pond plants have come from Waterside Nursery. I was originally concerned about getting plants by mail order, but they've never let me down. The water hawthorn in the top pond is so rampant I now pull about half of it out each spring, it still gave me a lovely spread of white flowers nodding above the water's surface this year.  In the lower pond, the water cress has been blooming for well over a month and the first water lily came out today. The glass flowers in the top pond are a new acquisition from our recent French holiday. The bed edging the pond is my best in the garden, which is no doubt because it gets the most sun.

A closer shot of the pond-edge bed shows off my new-found appreciation for matching orange with purple. The geum and Siberian Iris have been spectacular this year.

Here are my glass flowers and the blooming water hawthorn up close.

Just to the right of the pond, my other bed is framed by steps on both sides going between the top and bottom patios. The bluebells and forget-me-nots were so rampant this year I think I'm going to have to do some serious digging to thin things out. They may be drowning out other perennials. It's hard to see. Certainly the monkshood and a towering chrysanthemum are coming out with a vengeance, and last year's alliums have returned. Possibly a bit smaller, but still beautiful.

 On the lower patio, leading to my office door, the fig in the blue tub is flourishing. The box planter on the left should be a tower of flowers by high summer.

The hosta walk is looking great. And full. I need to start considering how I could anchor more to the wall.

 On the other side of the hosta walk's pergola, rose Generous Gardener is just coming into bloom.

On the stairs between the top and bottom patios, I have herbs, lettuce and cucamelons planted in pots. At the top left, my patio raspberries have set fruit for the first time since I bought them in 2015.

I haven't decided how I feel about this experiment yet. Inspired by all the meadow planting at Chelsea shows past, and especially by the herbal lay in Jekka McVicar's garden last year, I've tried my own. It's not bad, but I think I need more varieties of grass to really make it work.

At the end of my bottom path, near the back door, my espaliered apple (Worcester Pearmain) has set the most fruit ever. About a dozen spotted so far ... much better than the single apple I harvested last year! Hand pollinating with that paintbrush seems to have helped. Turns out this corner really doesn't get enough sun for a bumper harvest, but does mean that I can underplant with more hosta. And lavender, which sends up scent when the back door hits in.

I haven't bothered much with the spaces around the front of the house, with the exception of this hosta bed. I'm very happy with the mix of varieties, and especially with the enormous Sum and Substance in back with the allium coming through its leaves.

I'm working to establish a balance between flowers and stuff I can use in the kitchen. The shot above shows a montage of my edibles. Clockwise from top left: Mediterranean herbs a few steps from the back door; peas, cucumber, courgette (zucchini) and borage in the main bed, exotic mints in pots and regular mint and dill right next to the back door; what were supposed to be winter potatoes failed miserably for the November harvest, but are now coming on with fervour; baby apples; more courgettes set to grow up the pergola and my new Semillon grape vine; a few punnets of strawberries on the way.

I'm particularly happy with some of my planting combinations. Purple and pink remain my anchors. From left to right: Siberian Iris share space with a double-flowering geranium and sea thrift ... though plant-wise I may be most delighted with the alien-like spread of the sempervivum at the bottom; rose Sceptred Isle shares space with forget-me-nots and a rust-coloured verbascum; pink geranium and white tradescantia mix with nigella that's now freely re-seeding every year.

The biggest difference this year, however, is that some of my anchor plants have finally reached a glorious maturity. The centaurea (top left), the water lilies and the rose will keep blooming most of the year.

Not quite a Chelsea Show Garden ... but enough to be very proud of my achievement.