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The Chelsea Flower Show - Countdown to Chelsea

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My countdown to this years Chelsea Flower Show actually began back in December 2016 when I saw a small advert in the The Garden magazine, where the RHS were looking for applications for volunteers to help at the RHS Flower Shows. Over the last 10 years I have been lucky enough to be able to go to both the Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Shows (4 visits for each show) and always have a brilliant time, coming away with a lot of garden ideas and inspiration and too many shopping bags! On seeing the advert I thought volunteering would be a great way to see a different side of the show and experience it in a completely different way, so I sent off my application and crossed my fingers that I could get through to the selection phase. I was called to a selection event in February and was absolutely ecstatic to hear in March that I had got through, to be a Plant Finder in the Great Pavilion.  The last couple of weeks have involved learning about the different nurseries, the plants each nu
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Wonky Willow Weaving

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Last week as part of our town's cultural month I took part in a Willow Weaving Workshop hosted by our local Horticultural Association at the Trading Store. The aim of the evening was to make a willow cloche which could be either open or closed at the top to support plants or allow them to grow through. The Blue Peter 'here's one I made earlier' looked pretty impressive, shop quality in fact - I thought this was the beginners workshop with no experience necessary! After a lovely piece of homegrown pumpkin cake and a large mug of tea to steady the nerves, our teacher Trish talked us through the first stage of making the cloche- make 24 holes in a circle in an upturned banana box and select 24 pieces of 5ft willow, place in each hole and tie together at the top - so far so good, although mine seemed to start off looking a bit wonky! The willow we were working with had been soaked for a couple of days to make it more bendy and it was actually quite easy to weave, once
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Delightful Delft & Dutch Bulb Fields

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Since 2013 my recent visits to the Netherlands have all revolved around work, and the only tulips I got to see were the wooden ones in the departure hall of Schiphol Airport on trips to Paramaribo in Suriname, South America.  I got to visit Delft, again for work in 2015, but again due to very early flights and a long day of un-exciting meetings there was no time to see any of the town itself.  This time we were staying only 30 minutes drive away in Katwijk-aan-Zee, so I was determined not to miss out. Delft's Waterways We spent a lovely morning exploring old Delft, around the Markt and canals, with a delicious pancake lunch on a canal barge, boat trip, tulip inspired Delftware, finishing up with a slice of Dutch apple cake and copious amounts of tea - I would highly recommend. Kleijweg's Stadskoffyhuis For Lunch Tulip Inspired Delftware After Delft it was time to explore the Bollenstreek (the flower bulb region), where fields of tulips, hyacinths, n
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Keukenhof Gardens, The Netherlands

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Last weekend we had our first VW Campervan trip of the year to the Netherlands in exploration of all things tulip related.  After a epic 11 hour journey we made it to Katwijk-aan-Zee and our campsite by the sea for a bright and early start the next day to visit the Keukenhof Gardens, somewhere which has been on my 'must visit' list for a good few years. The Keukenhof Gardens are only open for 8 weeks of the year between April and May and we weren't sure whether we had got our timing right to see the tulips at their most spectacular - we were not disappointed and I think we were lucky enough to see them right at their very peak - it could not have been any better! Tulip Stripes Keukenhof is a showcase Spring Garden for the Dutch floricultural sector and has 7 million spring flowering bulbs, all planted by hand by 40 gardeners. The gardens have been open to the public since 1950 and covers 240 hectares and is the largest flower garden in the world.  Mondriaan i
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Greenhouse full & all out of windowsills

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One of our long term plans after living with a sea view in Dublin for 2 years is to eventually buy a house at the seaside - Hampshire, Suffolk, Scotland or somewhere further afield - not fussy really as long as you can see the sea and there is a vague connection to London (road, rail, plane etc). View from Dublin The dream house wish list became a little longer this week after a busy month of seed sowing and potting-on meant that every spare space remotely south facing was completely full of seed trays, root trainers, mini pots and propagators. Greenhouse No. 1 is full.  Garden room windowsill is full.  Spare room floor full and definitely can't have visitors for a month, unless they don't mind sharing with and caring for seedlings.  Second greenhouse bought and now also full due to all of the above. So now in addition to the normal house move wish list items - X No. bedrooms / bathrooms, sea view, parking for campervan etc etc the following non-negotiable items are
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Tulips not quite in Amsterdam

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After a few failures with winter vegetables over the years, it was time for a new project in Autumn 2016 to create a little bit of Holland with a Spring tulip cutting bed. Beetroot making way for Autumn bulb planting (2016) Spring has definitely sprung with 22 degrees C recorded in the garden this weekend and the tulip cutting bed has come to life - not sure that I have enough vases left in the house! Tulip cutting bed completely full My current favourites ( Tulipa 'Peach Blosson')
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The story of my garden...

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When my husband and I bought our house back in 2011 it was a total blank canvas - a Victorian end terrace house, fairly long and narrow, with a tumble down fence being held up by ivy, and divided neatly into paving / grass / gravel and uninspiring shed. Blank canvas garden 2011 (with the footprint of a complete path under the lawn) After 10 years of renting and moving nearly 80 pots and containers to the new house, including a whole raised bed, I was desperate to get finally get started on my own garden.  It wasn't quite as easy as we had hoped - the blank canvas appeared to be a cover only to the full scale patio and garden path lying beneath the lawn and gravel, and my overriding garden memory of Summer 2011 is of injecting glyphosate by hand into a massive infestation of horsetails ( Equisetum arvense ) which had taken over the entire garden and edges of the patio. After the glyphosate failed to work and the horsetails were back with a vengeance, the RHS was consulted
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