Veg Plotting

Here I am with my friend and fellow garden writer Sue on Chelsea Press Day, our fab photo kindly taken by another friend and photographer Ian Thwaites, who's given his permission for me to use it in this post. Thanks Ian!* 'Oi, stand aside,' I hear you say... 'we want to see the garden you've been telling us about for months!' Well, here it is... ...almost exactly the same view, but without us!  I'm also rather fond of this photo looking the other way, despite it being shot into the light. I think it gives it a slightly mystical feeling, especially as I mentally called the tree on the left 'the whomping willow' whenever I saw it. Weren't we lucky with the weather! The reaction to The Flood Resilient Garden on the day, on the Chelsea TV coverage, and in the press was immense. Naomi and her co-designer Ed certainly caught the zeitgeist after our miserable rainy winter and spring. Joanna Lumley said she adored it. Here are a few more scenes from the...

I spent an amazing couple of days at RHS Chelsea helping Naomi with the planting tasks for her Flood Resilient garden . This is what I learned along the way... Have hi viz, will travel! Luckily I didn't need to borrow NAH's heavy duty railworking hi viz jacket and trousers (on standby in case it really poured with rain), nor did I need a hard hat as I was working after the main construction phase. I had to take an online site safety course and test before being allowed on site It's good to travel comfortably and wait until the last moment to don your heavy steel capped boots. Even better when you find a bench at Chelsea Barracks to do so whilst admiring their fab Chihuly glass installation at their Spring Festival Have a spare pair of steel capped boots available when the rubber tread on your day one boots drops off on the way home. Luckily I was by the Barracks when this happened and could swiftly change into my trainers. Even luckier is my shoe size is almost the same as ...

This image makes my heart sing and is why I love the National Gardens Scheme (NGS). It doesn't cost much to visit a garden tended by an enthusiast, yet see how all those entrance fees can grow into something life changing. My visits are going to start early this year with a trip to Westcroft  next month, a Wiltshire garden near Salisbury which is stuffed with snowdrops and so is opening happily as part of the NGS's Snowdrop Festival. See you there Helen !

It's Bank Holiday time for us to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and amongst the usual Union Jacks and bunting, Chippenham has put its own special touches to the celebrations. Like many communities we have some special postbox toppers and I found the one above earlier this week gracing one in Monkton Park. I know our Knatty Knitters have other plans afoot, so I'm off to explore the centre of town later today. The Museum has had a couple of Jubilee projects I've been involved with. The Young Photographers group worked hard on their '70 Years, 70 Faces' and found at least one face per year of the Queen's reign. NAH and I went along to see ours at the Yelde Hall and add a new meaning to 'we were beside ourselves'! You may recognise a couple of the faces as Mark Allum (below me) and Lisa Lloyd (top right) from Antiques Roadshow live in Chippenham. I think NAH has fared particularly well in the photos, but then I'm biased! I - along with my WI...

  ... Happy Valentine's Day 🥰😻

I was holding a hope for Malvern's autumn show going ahead this weekend, but sadly the current situation meant it wasn't to be. However the fab team at the Three Counties Showground came up trumps with their Plant and Garden Fair earlier this month instead. Lots of the nurseries I'd planned to visit were there... and plants were indeed purchased, but the highlight of the day were the talks which took centre stage. I confess flower arranging hasn't really been my thing up to now - I'm more of a plonk and put sort of gal - but Georgie Newbery previously, and now Jonathan Moseley are helping me see there are possibilities in this line. As Jonathan explained in his talk, picking flowers encourages them to bloom more, thus dispelling the notion mine are better off in the garden instead of displayed in the vase. Jonathan shared plenty of ideas for autumnal arrangements. Simple yet effective jam jar style posies were much in evidence albeit framed and hung on display, or e...

Visitors to the SS Great Britain in Bristol are in for a treat over the next few weeks as a Summer Spectacular is added to the attractions already on offer. I was lucky enough to be invited to the preview recently and here you can see " Mr Brunel " himself welcoming us. Soon I was talking to one of the volunteers dressed as a sailor who told me about his role. "Careful young lady," said Mr Bennett - Brunel's office manager - as he passed us by, "that sailor has a woman in every port!" It was an amusing and characterful addition to the evening. But I digress. Let's have a look at the Summer Spectacular itself... Before it starts, a bunch of suspicious looking characters wend their way through the audience onto the ship - see the people dressed in white at the centre of the photo? For it is they. There's a great deal of joking, pretending to work and tomfoolery on the deck until it's declared it's time to inspect the rig...

It's a while since I attended the Malvern Spring Festival and it was a happy return there last week. I might have been there on the only rainy day, but there was still plenty to smile about. Most of my show gardens photos have turned out on the dull side because of the gloom, but nothing could stop Peter Dowle 's award winning efforts from looking good on the day. The striking sculpture is called 'Zephyr' and is by Simon Gudgeon. When I looked him up, it transpires he owns Sculpture by the Lakes in Dorset, a garden which is now on my must-see list. Here are a few more of my outdoor highlights... The rusted metal are my chosen items from Tom Critchley this time and are shown 'planted' in my garden. Meanwhile indoors... It struck me there was a lot more thought put into the displays at this year's show. I particularly liked the x-ray and microscope images. The number of areas and themes for talks has also increased and I particularly enj...

Early morning at the trials field at Mr Fothergill's this summer and the light was just right for highlighting the poppies they'd sown in tribute to the fallen and the centenary of the end of WWI. Then a few hours later, my fumbling fingers just about managed to capture this happy juxtaposition. A couple of Chelsea Pensioners are usually invited to Mr Fothergill's Press Day for the presentation of the cheque for the funds raised from their 'Victoria Cross' poppy and 'Scarlet Tunic' sweet pea seeds. 25p is donated per packet sold and over £70,000 has been raised so far. We also learnt the traditional heavy scarlet tunic coat costs around £600 and is very hot to wear on a summer's day, especially in the hot spell we experienced earlier this year. It was one of those days at the trials field, but luckily it didn't dim the cheerfulness and twinkling humour of our two Pensioner visitors. The Royal Hospital Chelsea has launched the  Scarlet...

I always try and multi-task with events when I go to London, and a planned side trip to Covent Garden last week held a surprise in the shape of this green wall next to the tube station. It's a double wall, so if you take the street you can see to the right of the photo (where you can just about make out the tube station)... ... you'll find Regal House is all wrapped up for Christmas. There were problems with the Piccadilly line, so sadly I didn't have time to fully explore Covent Garden's seasonal delights as I was late for my first appointment. Instead you'll have to imagine the dramatic notes of Nessun Dorma sung by a lady opera singer, and take the link to see the wonderful mistletoe lights decking the market halls. My morning's destination held another surprise. This is a great idea for creating a funky and stylish interior green wall on a budget. It would make a great room divider, and the use of plants such as the ferns shown in the middle ...

Chippenham's Knit and Natter group have been at it again. Like last year's Christmas display , their High Street poppies instantly became the talk of the town when they put them up on Monday night. Of course I had to photograph them for today's Remembrance Sunday, and I had several conversations with complete strangers doing the same. We all agreed how wonderful they are and a great help in our own Remembrance this year. Restoration of the town's war memorial is complete, with a local firm paying for the re-gilding of the soldiers' names inscribed on the monument. Later today, two women from my WI will lay a wreath on behalf of Chippenham's four WIs. As our group is the youngest of the four, it's our first time to take part in the town's official ceremony. It's not our only act of Remembrance, because Chippenham has a larger and more unusual memorial. Thirty three streets on the Pewsham estate are named after the WWI soldiers shown on...

It's official! And yes, that IS a spider at the window - it caught a wasp just after I took this selfie I entered a new world at the weekend, courtesy of my friend Sally who invited me to judge the flower classes at Foxham Horse Show . After I said I'd love to, a little bit of jiggery-pokery ensued and I swiftly achieved promotion to fruit, veg AND flower classes. I was totally unaware this event existed until Sally volunteered as show secretary this year. Not only does it exist, it celebrated its 30th birthday on Saturday. The horse show is the main  raison d'etre with around 300 horses attending this year's competitions of all kinds. The produce classes were added a couple of years ago as a fun way of involving more people. Foxham is a small village around 5 miles north of Chippenham. It's a pleasant drive which follows Maud Heath's Causeway  for quite a way and goes through the hamlet of Kellaways. This is the source for the naming of the Kellaways F...

Some of the paintings featured in the exhibition. Clockwise from top left we have: Philip Leslie Hale, Crimson Rambler , 1909; Matilda Browne, Clark Vorhees House 1914; Childe Hassam, Summer Evening 1886; and Edmund Greacen, The Old Garden c. 1912. All images are cropped and courtesy of the Florence Griswold Museum, except Crimson Rambler, which is courtesy of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. All images supplied by Flint-PR I've enjoyed visits to major art exhibitions in London with strong links to gardening over the past couple of years and in the process I've decided this is a fine way to appreciate both over the long winter months. Imagine my joy at the discovery of another major art exhibition -   The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism - which according to the blurb is about: "...how the American public fell in love in with gardening, and how this burgeoning interest in horticulture influenced a generation of American artists. Inspired by th...