Front garden makeover

I've been a bit remiss in keeping up the garden's blog - but then the Chelsea Flower Show blog and the Hampton Court blog saw plenty of action.

Well, I ventured out into the front garden and did a bit of landscaping and remodelling so watch this space for pictures when I finish it.

Hampton Court Flower Show

Check out my coverage of Hampton Court Palace Flower Show on http://hamptoncourtflowershow.blogspot.com/

From one blog to another...

My scribblings for this year's Chelsea Flower Show are at an end. You can trawl through the archive here

Alternatively, you can now start following my coverage of Hampton Court Palace Flower Show which takes on a Shakesperean theme.

Vote now!

Place your vote in the Chelsea Flower Show People's Choice Award, where you the viewing public get the chance to say which show garden you thought was top at this year's show.


My vote will be for the Roger Platts designed M&G Garden - a picturesque, traditionally British affair that has clever planting which enables the garden to look interesting in all light and weather.

The wooden structures and the circular pool provide a perfect backdrop for the flowers, shrubs and hedging.

Two of my colleagues have called me a "traditionalist" and a "plant hippie". That's not so - in the Small Garden category, my vote goes to A Joy forever, a contemporary sunken garden which has been designed for entertaining.


Let's face it - we would all like either of these in our back gardens!

Follow my Chelsea blog here

It's Chelsea

I don't mean football - it's show time at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Check out my posts for the show at chelseaflowershow.blogspot.com

Pretty in pieris

It seems odd to get into May and find the Pieris only just coming into their own - but I have a couple of stunners lighting up a dark corner on the patio underneath my dwarf cherry tree. I suppose that's what we can now expect with our changing climate.

I have to keep them in pots since the clay in the garden is such an inhibitor of growth that I have to provide all the plants' nutrients artificially with heaps of ericaceous compost. I also have a lovely peach coloured azalea which gets a similar treatment.

War!

It's been a little while since my last post - pressure of work (believe it or not), educational studies and horrible weather...

I am at war with the local vermin (that includes cats) that seem to think my garden is a public lavatory (not to mention the squirrels who think my bulbs are a tasty breakfast). The Olbas oil on teabags is having some effect. My neighbour has suggested a sonic gadget...

However, the most frustrating thing is that when I actually get round to clearing and digging over a section of garden, there is a steaming deposit there the next morning. So, I upped the ante and started chasing the intruders out of the garden. Next morning on my front step was a regurgetated mouse staring up at me...

A peace offering? Bit like the BNP saying they have a healthy approach to immigration!

Moon gate

You get a lot of old rubbish through Twitter these days. My thanks, however, go to James Stodman who posted this picture of a Japanese Moon Gate on Twitpics. I wish my garden had one...

Cold snaps

For those of you that have been driven indoors by the appalling weather, see what others are up to or how they are coping with the awful conditions:

RHS advice on wintry conditions

Some nice pictures

More pictures

Snow on video

A great place to visit

Some good advice

And more advice

Back to basics for TV show

It would seem that some programme makers at the BBC are feeling the bite of winter's cold blast after the current version of Gardeners' World was consigned to the waste bin.

I'm not sorry to see it go - I along with many others felt it lightweight and not in keeping with the traditions of the show.

I did find it a bit rich that past presenters jumped on the bandwagon to condemn it and mystifying that Toby Buckland and crew have been kept on.

I say new year, new show, new people!