Won't be bothering watching any Chelsea coverage then!
The TV pre-show is always the the same: Suspense! Will they be ready on the day.?
Day 1 is: Suspense! Wiill they get a gold? Will they be delighted with a siver-gilt?
The show is nearly all unrealistic gardens. 90% hard landscaping. Very little on plants. And for that you have to suffer Carol KLein's giggle-talk. Better to visit and spend you time where you want.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Our council only cuts the green areas when the flowers are just about to flower. The verges are hacked once or twice a year, just after everything gets to about 3ft high and then the clipping just left all over the path.
Our council cuts hedgerows and verges by March 15th and then leaves them till September/October which nicely covers the closed season for protecting nesting birds. They could cut in August but France, including council staff, tends to be on holiday in August.
I'm fortunate in that all 3 gardens I've owned have had wildlife zones adjacent so plenty of native trees and wildflowers even when I haven't deliberately left patches of nettles and brambles and uncut grass full of "weeds". I do now choose to buy or sow single flowered versions so there is nectar and pollen available to adult invertebrates as opposed to double forms which have sacrificed pollen and nectar to have more showy petals.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
@debs64 - my husband saw a butterfly laying her eggs on a dandelion. And we do see bees on them.
I'm sure the insects are having a lovely time with all of the purple deadnettle we have at the moment. If it weren't so common, and absolutely everywhere, I'm sure its a plant we would actually want in our gardens. It's a lovely colour, the leaves are pretty and I think you can even eat it!
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Our council like everything snipped to within and inch of its life.
Day 1 is: Suspense! Wiill they get a gold? Will they be delighted with a siver-gilt?
The show is nearly all unrealistic gardens. 90% hard landscaping. Very little on plants. And for that you have to suffer Carol KLein's giggle-talk. Better to visit and spend you time where you want.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I ♥ my garden.
I'm fortunate in that all 3 gardens I've owned have had wildlife zones adjacent so plenty of native trees and wildflowers even when I haven't deliberately left patches of nettles and brambles and uncut grass full of "weeds". I do now choose to buy or sow single flowered versions so there is nectar and pollen available to adult invertebrates as opposed to double forms which have sacrificed pollen and nectar to have more showy petals.
I'm sure the insects are having a lovely time with all of the purple deadnettle we have at the moment. If it weren't so common, and absolutely everywhere, I'm sure its a plant we would actually want in our gardens. It's a lovely colour, the leaves are pretty and I think you can even eat it!
@bede - nowt wrong with being lefty or woke.