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It’s one of many exhibits at this year’s show which explore sustainability and other environmental issues.O is for organic and an initiative led by the Henry Doubleday Research Association. The Organic Food for All exhibit shows that you don’t need some poncy potager or walled garden to grow your own food: you can produce organic vegetables regardless of space, income or previous experience.P is for photography, and a new trend this year which sees two show gardens – Room 105 and The Gallery Outside – designed as outdoor photographic galleries. P is also for portraits by Patrick Lichfield, featured in The Gallery Outside. And P is for pool, not the turquoise tiled version, but a natural swimming pool in the Moat and Castle Eco-Garden. Expect to see at least one bikini-clad female in it for the benefit of the television cameras before the show ends.Q is for the Queen, who dutifully tours the show each year on the afternoon before it opens, accompanied by other members of the Royal Family.

J is also for judging, a complex and arcane process involving RHS teams with names like “Floral B Committee” (Hardy Ornamental Woody Plants) headed by a man in a panama hat. How to spot a judge: he or she will be the one casting furtive glances over their shoulder in case an irate exhibitor wants to berate them about not getting a gold.K is for Kim Wilde, who proves that there is at least one tenuous connection between gardening and rock ‘n ‘roll. She’s a co- designer of the Cumbrian Fellside Garden, which features wild flowers, slate and a water feature that mimics a fellside rivulet. Kim herself isn’t totally out to grass these days: she’s performing alongside the Stranglers and Toyah at Culzean Castle in Ayrshire on 12 August. All together now: “We’re the kids in America, woh-oh…”L is for Terry Lloyd, the ITN journalist killed while reporting on the war in Iraq in 2003. He is commemorated with a new variety of helenium called ‘Chelsey’, launched by Rougham Hall Nurseries.

For each plant sold, a donation will be made to the British Red Cross International Disaster Fund. Chelsey is the name of Terry’s daughter, who began the fund-raising campaign as a way of thanking the Red Cross for bringing home her father’s body.M is for the Message in a Bottle exhibit – no, not another Eighties pop song (“Kids in America” still going round your brain?), but an SOS to the world from the Royal Botanic Gardens on behalf of rare and endangered plants. It includes the cabbage tree from the Robinson Crusoe Islands and what might be termed a pinosaur – the prehistoric Wollemi pine, discovered only 10 years ago and Kew’s prize exhibit.N is for nettles, as nurtured over the past few months by garden designer Claire Whitehouse for her Real Rubbish Garden, sponsored by the RSPB and Sita Environmental Trust. There is no limit to the number of golds that can be awarded each year – sometimes only a couple of show gardens get the prize gong, other years it’s four or five. But there are always the silver-gilt, silver and bronze medals to hope for. No, not Cannabis sativa, but an exhibit by the Royal College of Pathologists that explores six familiar plants and their role in fighting disease. The six are: willow (aspirin), foxglove (heart disease), yew (ovarian cancer), vinca (leukaemia), artemisia (malaria) and tea tree (microbiology).E is for edible, or, to be strictly accurate, “exotic edibles” as demonstrated by the chef Raymond Blanc, who has collaborated with the Oxfordshire-based Newington Nurseries on the Asian Garden, an exhibit that aims to show people how to grow Malaysian specialities such as lemongrass and ginger in the UK.

(See also V for Vegetables.) And E is for estate agents, notably Savills, celebrating its 150th anniversary with a garden inspired by the 18th-century Grand Tour. Sadly, there won’t be a real estate agent on site to point out the period features, but at least viewing won’t be by appointment.F is for the Fetzer Wine Garden, an organic garden sponsored by a Mendocino County, northern California, vineyard, which admirably demonstrates that pottering around your plot is much more pleasant when accompanied by a glass of zinfandel or merlot.G is for Diarmuid Gavin. If gardening has any claim to be today’s rock ‘n ‘roll then Diarmuid is its Liam Gallagher. His garden this year is described as being a “contemporary communal garden, possibly for an apartment block”. Let’s hope Bunny Guinness doesn’t move in: the two designers fell out last year in a well-publicised spat. It’s rumoured that Diarmuid has calmed down and currently favours a return to traditional gardening and herbaceous borders, but just to be on the safe side, the RHS has prudently placed him next to Terence Conran’s peace garden (see W).H is for Hilliers, the nursery and garden centre people, who are competing for their 60th consecutive Chelsea gold medal this year.