Chelsea Flower Show

First of all, hi to Susan Allan who follows this blog for her encouragement following yesterday's fed-upedness :-)

I spent a wee while this afternoon tidying up the pots and dismantling the greenhouse frame so the garden looks a bit better. Still can't find the seedlings though, or any sign of the pots and trays they were in. How can it be that the empty plastic pots are still here and the heavy soil filled ones have vanished??

I've decided to get a big plastic tub, the lidded kind you use for storing kids' toys, to keep the pots in.  And I'll recycle the pots I really am not going to use by giving them to Hopetoun Garden Centre.  Looking on the positive side, the new greenhouse arrangement will give me a little bit more room on the patio so I can put the sun loungers out now and also the gazebo out to shade us from the blistering sun... *cough*

But, if it's cold and blowy here, it's sunny and warm (if a bit blowy) in Chelsea where I tune in to get my annual garden-fashion show fix. I've never been, but I gather that watching on TV is the best idea, particularly with the interactive options available and the Internet. Going in person is apparently a bit of an endurance test as it's usually so warm and so busy. Watching from the comfort of my sofa means I avoid the crowds and the aching feet. Plus of course it gives you the chance to see the gardens uninterrupted.  So yes, Chelsea Flower Show on the telly, a glass of wine in my hand, and I'm in heaven.

I admit to being a bit of a boring gardener, inasmuch as I prefer classic/traditional gardens, and colour. I'm not big on the fashion of a few years ago where everything was green, green, and variations on green. Similarly, things like Diarmuid Gavin's lollipops for the National Lottery, his "sky garden" for Cork Tourist Board etc, just don't do it for me. I can appreciate the concept, and the thinking behind it, but for me a garden is about the plants: the structures should be the framing, the support, the punctuation, but not the point of the garden.

But I love seeing what the new plants are in the Pavilion, and the combinations used in the big gardens.

This year, as always there are gardens I just love and which I covet. 

I love this one, because I love the rill that winds exactly the same way water does on damp sand on its way to the ocean.

The Laurent Perrier (always a gorgeous garden)have a planting plan I just love with the faded crimson irises - I would have an iris bed if I could

Absolutely stunning combinations


And I love this because, it combines fruit, veg and flowers, the perfect cottage garden

When I think of cottage gardens I think of  a Mellors-esque garden where everything is stuffed together and the veg is as ornamental as the flowers. A modern and middle-class conceit I suppose, because we, or I, don't have the same worries about the success or otherwise of my crops.  I do at some point want a fair bit more land, but at the same time, having a tiny amount (with the allotment) forces me to garden like I would like to/should live: to cram everything worthwhile and enjoyable in...