Balcony Garden at Chelsea Flower Show

Dear Readers, tucked away behind all the posh show gardens is a little space for container and balcony gardening, which is a recognition of the number of people coping with tiny gardens or even just a window sill. There were some spectacular examples of small-space gardening, though I couldn’t help but wonder how much the mature trees in the example above would cost.

The raised beds below had been tiled, which is a nice idea if you’re handy with the grout.

And this one, with its mismatched pots, is rather more the kind of thing that I usually have.

And look, here’s a red phone box, full to busting with hydrangeas.

Now, at this point I finally succumbed to the lure of the Purbeck ice cream stands which are all over the showground, along with a large number of Mr Whippy ice cream vans. Not to mention the Pimms and Champagne, but it was a bit early for that, even for me. So I had two scoops (one salted caramel, one ‘serious chocolate’ as you ask) and I sat on a bench under a tree and listened to the long-tailed tits and the parakeets. It suddenly occurred to me that, as it was only about 9 a.m, this was probably the earliest ice cream I’d ever eaten.

In a very British way, every tenth person who passed had a comment along the lines of ‘you look as if you’re enjoying that, and I must do the same’. And indeed I was.

Anyhow, then it was back to the fray, where I realised that even at this early hour it was practically impossible to see the show gardens, and so I turned my attention to some of the garden sculptures. You’d need quite an estate (of the country variety) for these lions, and even the turtles would overpower my garden…

And what is this, in the Saatchi garden? It looks like a pink furry pyramid. At least it has novelty value.

And the thistles (Cirsium atropurpureum if I’m not mistaken) were the main attraction for the bumblebees.

What I did find out was that the Flowers exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, which has just finished, is coming back from the end of May until the end of August. I was really sorry to have missed it, so will attempt to sneak in over the summer. It gets completely sold out at weekends, so I’m very happy that I’ve retired (did I mention that I’ve retired?)

I wandered on to admire some glass that could feature in one’s garden…

…and if you’re missing a standing stone or two, you can get them brought in (presumably by crane)…

And so, I decided to bid adieu to Chelsea Flower Show while the going was good. I was very pleased to see the Song Bird garden, and I liked the smaller gardens too, but all in all it was still a bit too busy by the end, introvert that I am. And so, I headed home. On the way back along Lower Sloane Street, I noticed a fledgling crow sitting in a very posh windowbox with a ‘nothing to see here’ expression on his/her face. Of course, I stopped to ask the bird a few questions along the lines of ‘what are you doing here?’ and ‘where is your Mummy’, but then a very loud adult crow perched opposite told me all that I needed to know. And look at the Plane trees in the square opposite! My heart is still with wild urban nature, much as I love the way that sustainability and biodiversity are becoming more and more acknowledged as important in the garden.