I was lucky enough last week to visit the Chelsea Flower Show – as usual, full of inspirational ideas, but, this year, they seemed somewhat more achievable than usual. The planting was natural and used plants and flowers that us mere mortals might have in our own garden. All in all, I returned full of inspiration and ready to get cracking.
The fabulous warm weekend was unfortunately followed by a frost this week. To my dismay, my newly planted runner beans have been nipped and several of the leaves have turned brown. I am just hoping that they are resilient enough to recover, along with the potatoes, which had their second frosting.

The garden is looking very colourful, with the last of the tulips fading and the alliums now in full bloom – they really fill a gap after the daffs fade, before the summer perennials kick into action. My wallflowers have also finally flowered – a feat I thought almost impossible after the pounding they had by the winter weather.
In the tunnel, the lettuce is still going great guns and I have planted out some more seedlings to ensure succession. This week I picked my first antirrhinums which self seeded from last year and have developed into a strong plant which, with regular picking, will produce flowers for several months – very satisfying.

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