Wearing dark glasses post tv appearance

As I sat watching Gardeners World on Friday I was thinking that it just wasn’t as interesting as it usually is (apart from Carol of course), and I couldn’t really think what was missing, till I suddenly realised it was me!

Yes......believe it or not my ego has inflated significantly since the show went out last week.

I was quite nervous about how it would look and how I would come across, not helped by the fact that I was away in Stockholm last weekend and couldn’t actually see it till Monday evening. Before I saw it for myself, I didn’t know how much I wanted to know and didn’t turn on my phone or look at Facebook until Monday... As I turned on my phone on 10 messages came through, all of which were positive and some from people I hadn’t seen in ages, same with Facebook.

What happened on Facebook was unexpected as I also got 5 friend requests from people I didn’t know.... now I don’t even automatically say yes to friend requests from old school friends as feel that a re-establishing contact message is basic manners, so was rather bemused by random requests without even an email, but was glad I was attracting at least a few hotties!
There was also 5 pages of discussion about the Gardeners World episode on HTUK which was very odd, but everyone was very supportive although I know that people who are exotic enthusiasts would probably want a lot more from an episode on jungle gardening.

My path....as seen on Gardeners World

It was Monday evening when I watched the recording, 5 mins from when I got through the door. It is so odd seeing yourself on tv, and also to see how edited it all was. Although Carol and I were having a ‘natural’ conversation when it was a shot of my face, or hers, or a plant the footage was all from different takes....even the vocal was a little bit chopped up and edited down. The African music was also amusing, and I have found myself humming it when walking around the garden.

Overall I thought it looked ok, but it was amusing how huge the garden and house looked. Polite friends who said I came across as very knowledgeable and a natural so we already planning a pitch to the TV people for our own show with me doing the garden, my friend Pip doing the weather and Steven doing a baking section.

I haven’t quite got the ‘noticed in public’ effect that I thought may have happened although it is odd which of the people I know/work with saw it as it has outed many secret Gardeners World watchers.

On my way home on Tuesday evening I did think that I had been noticed as when I walked onto my road a stranger came up to me, and you know when you think someone is coming up to you to say something and you prepare, and I was all ready for a ‘yes it was me on Gardeners World, would you like me to sign a packet of seeds for you’ however it was merely a drunk person whom was returning from their friends wake who wanted to tell me about how they had died at 34 from a drugs overdose.

I did wonder if I should take this as some type of divine message as I have also just turned 34, however the divine meaning has been a little lost on me as I didn’t take it as a message to not do drugs (I don’t beyond the odd aspirin and medicinal gin). But perhaps gardening is my drug and I need to calm down/deflate the ego before it kills/bankrupts me?

I have now watched the clip  a few times, the most embarrassing being the last time which was actually when I sat down to watch the whole episode as I hadn’t seen the beginning or end. However as soon as my bit came on before I could fast forward it Steven came into the room and gave me a ‘OMG are you really watching yourself on tv again’ he then left and my brother also then came into the room to call me a saddo.

It’s all been a very amusing experience and I still chortle to myself when I think about it all....certainly something to tick off the list.

Anyway....plant and garden things....

I have been doing some hard digging again and had the slaves out over the weekend to help...its now back to the clearance routine, especially as my waist line is begining to expand again...

Clerodendrum trichotomum.....beautiful large shrub/small tree with gorge flowers, strong scent and now these crazy berries....

The oddest recent visitor to the garden was a female pheasant or grouse?! very odd as we are in the middle of London

Cobea scandens...annual climber, flowers start white and fade to purple. lovely but so late to get going....thank you Mark and Gaz for the Cobea tips as i will hunt down a Cobea pringlei next yr!

Dahlia merckii now looking great after much abuse by foxes and falling spades, thank you Sue for the plant!

Tetrapanax about to flower..... I have never had it flower as the frosts always get the flower buds, perhaps this will be the year?!

Preparing for winter (and an imminent tv appearance)

I was thinking that as I am about to be on tv talking about overwintering plants I should actually start doing something myself!....by the way looks like I will hopefully  be on Gardeners World this Friday (21^st)

One of the problems with jungle gardens is that it is very hard to start preparing for winter, as a lot of the plants you grow are just getting better and better through the year. Natives/traditional plants often are a lot more cyclical reaching their peak for their high society appointments at Chelsea and Hampton Court and then winding down through the rest of the year to when winter is a welcome relief.  Exotics just build momentum, showing off more and more until they are caught unaware by the frosts.

A lot of the garden is still looking good, particularly the Ricinus, bananas and Kangeroo apple however loads is looking well manky especially the Dahlias which is why I’m very jealous of many people who still have them looking pristine... I have a feeling I probably need to keep feeding them to keep them going.

Its also still rather warm and sunny, in a moment of madness I even whipped my top of for a bit of topless sunbathing to get my vitamin D levels up. I also had to get the hose out to water some much abused looking plants as the soil is so very dry in much of the garden, and was incredibly hard to dig.

I was compelled into action this weekend as the boot load of plants I bought last weekend, along with those from the RHS show are just sitting there looking dry and should really go into the ground before winter. It is always so dull to just buy plants to go in places where you have gaps, far more of a challenge to just buy buy buy! but the prospect of squeezing in 20-30 new arrivals is a little daunting.  Often the first thing I do when planting is to see if there are any bits of lawn that can be slowly eeked away to enlarge beds...this always has to be done a little secretly to prevent strife with the non believers, but this weekend I just couldn’t break new ground it was too hard.  I then got into a vicious circle where I would move things as they weren’t working and put something new in, but then the maths didn’t add up as I would dig three things out to put one in, so I then had to find new homes for those three things.

I don’t do a huge amount to prepare for winter....Dahlias just stay in the ground although I will add a thick layer of mulch to a few faves, especially my new Dahlia imperialis which from a 30cm plant I bought in July is now up to about 8ft.  I did have a Carol moment and went around the garden collecting seed, as seed is getting more and more expensive. I have been protecting the bananas more as although Basjoo and Sikkimensis are both root hardy for me their stems can be lost if the winter is hard. As they are also quite young I’m trying to help them thicken their stems before taking a chance.  I’m also increasingly seeing how it is the wet that kills things over winter, and am making the most of a covered side passage which is open to the elements at the end, but will keep things dry. I also think it is warmer than the cold greenhouse.

My initial approached to jungle garden was a bit lazy, as I don’t want to be someone who relies upon a huge amount of tender stuff to have a nice looking garden. This looks great but is then expensive and a huge amount of work to over winter. My basic approach is to have a structure of hardy exotics (I just counted and I now have 12 young Trachycarpus) this is mixed in with hardy perennial things that look wild/jungly in the right context. I then have loads of annuals like Ricinus, and the odd tender thing...  It is getting this balance right that I’m aiming for, whilst not being too distracted by tender things that I don’t have space to overwinter.
Saying that there are lots of plants I take chances with, and opening for the NGS I’m perhaps less prepared to take risks so will be moving lots of things to the side passage such as Geranium maderensis (almost hardy, usually pegs it in Feb), Opuntia (hardy but the cold makes its pads skanky), Cyperus alternifolius and Musa lasiocarpus (which is hardy for me but i want a head start next year), Musa sikkimensis (to save the stems), some of the 1yr old Albizzia seedlings and a few of the new Salvias. We also have a meter room cupboard which is quite warm where I will cut back and store the Cannas, Bugmansia and for the first time a Musa ensete.

There is a lot on the internet about overwintering Musa Ensete, my favourite being a random german posts, but in essence you chop all the leaves and roots off, turn it upside down to dry it out a bit and then keep it dry and frost free till spring.  There is a lot on HTUK about overwintering including one guy who has done loads of videos.

So I think I will wait a couple of weeks until the first frosts are imminent or blacken a bit of the foliage....I can’t quite bring myself to cut things back yet whilst they are still looking good so will cross my fingers and hope that things will be ok. I guess I should also see what Monty and Carol say on Gardeners World..............

Anyway, I hope me and Carol on tv will amuse you, I’m rather apprehensive about what it will look like and if I look like a twat/idiot/overly camp (all the pictures Mum took seem to have me standing with my hands on my hips!). Self awareness/how you look/sound on tv is always odd. I was filmed this week by the lovely Sunil for a funding bid for work, and he did a great job creating a very high quality video and I was relieved at how I looked and sounded ok and didn’t seem to be much of an idiot although I do pull a huge amount of faces. Who knows how I will feel next week!

What a weekend (aka I love Carol Klein)



Look at me and my NBF!

I think I need to pinch myself as I have just had the most surreal and wonderful birthday weekend. It all started at 8am on Friday morning when Carol Klein and the BBC Gardeners World film crew arrived to film my garden for a slot which was about jungle/exotic style gardening and putting the garden to bed for the winter.

I have always loved Carol Klein, and having her come to film was a birthday wish come true. For my non UK readers who have no idea who she is, she is basically British gardening royalty, and the most famous and recognisable of lady gardening presenters. Even the young builder from upstairs recognised her ‘ey, isn’t she that bird from telly?’ he asked as he swept the front porch for the third time that day.....

Whenever you watch tv you always wonder whether off screen ‘stars’ would be like you imagined them to be, and if nice people are actually real divas. Carol was just as I had imagined (lovely and not a troublesome diva) and great fun to spend the day with, as were the whole crew as they were just genuinely nice people.

The whole operation was a lot more slimmed down than I had thought. I wondered if I would hear Carol’s arrival as I imagined the house shaking as her Winnebago pulled up, but she stayed in a Travel lodge with the others. There wasn’t even a makeup crew or catering van... I had to get over my fears of how I would look on HD with my forehead shine, and Carol had to sort herself out once she found her lippy in her tea bag box. She clearly is not getting the recognition she deserves!

I knew that TV takes a lot longer to film than you think, but I was amazed at how many takes each section took as you have to do it a few times to get it right, then remember what you said and repeat it, do shots from different angles and then if you touch a plant/do something with your hands they then want a close up of this too! This was all to a backdrop of a very noisy garden as next door to the right the builders were drilling, to the other side they were piling and digging with a JCB, then there were airplanes overhead and the railway. The poor sound guy looked a little frustrated at times.  Each time they shot they also did say 'Action' which always made me giggle and feel just that little bit Hollywood!

Carol and my big banana

I had a funny feeling that we were being followed

The essence of the slot was about how to sustain/use plants for the exotic effect so we looked at how you could use annuals with a shot of  Ricinus and Kangeroo apple, then close up at Tithonia and collecting seeds. Then we looked at hardy plants you could use to get the effect looking first at the Calla lilly and then Clerondendron bungeii (wich sounds fabulous said in a Lanacshire accent). We finished with digging up a Musa sikkimensis which was then wrapped for the winter (to protect, not put under the Xmas tree)....if we had more time we would do a tepee for the Basjoo which stays in the ground but we decided against this.

I think the only part where my enthusiasm began to wane was digging up the banana (then replanting it twice) then wrapping it, unwrapping it, wrapping it again a couple of times. When I thought we were done we then completely unwrapped it again in order to reattach a couple of leaves to do a close up of cutting the leaf off....ah the magic of tv!

The most amusing bit was the last part of the day as it was getting a bit late and the light was going, but they hadn’t yet managed to do the introduction sequence walking up to the house...they had to keep re-filming as cars kept coming up the road with their headlights on ruining the magic.

So all in all a fabulous day...with all the repetition it could have been very dull, but I was lucky that the film crew were some of the nicest people I have met in ages. Carol was also a real hoot to spend the day with, and it was great to talk plants and have a giggle.

That evening I went for my bday dinner eating Kazakhstani food complete with bellydancing in a bit of a surreal haze, and had to remind myself what had actually happened. The next day we then went to Norfolk to spend the weekend making the pilgrimage to Will Giles garden, Amultree exotics and Urban Jungle.

I love Will Giles as his book is pretty much my gardening Bible, and seeing his garden in the flesh was a real treat. He has a lovely collection of plants, and spookily my own garden felt quite similar. He uses his spaces well with lots of different areas including a great covered passage, huts, fountains and flint walls.

Will Giles's fabulous treehouse

So beautiful! I want it all starting with the Schleffera....

I also took the opportunity to see Urban Jungle which I have used for mail order. It was a great nursery packed with well grown and cared for plants and I would recommend a trip. They also have a little garden and it was inspiring to see things I hadn’t seen in the flesh before but want to grow including a Tamarillo, Leonotus and Eryngium pandanifolium.

Finally we went to Amultree exotics, which I didn’t have a hugely positively opinion of as last year I wasn’t that impressed with their mail order but figured I should go as we were in the area, however it was great! As we walked round and chatted to the owner I was really impressed by his diversity of plants including many things I had no idea about. They also have a 50% sale, and it was my birthday so there was a huge amount of impulse buying and the car was so full by the end. I got loads of things I’m excited about including Cyathea brownei, Musa Chini-Champa, some Musa’s I’ve never heard of, Phyllostachys Shanghai 3, Phyllostachys propinqua  and lots more

Urban Jungle garden

I thought I may have to ask Steven to walk, but we managed to fit it all in!

So all in all a rather fabulous weekend, I couldn’t have asked for better. Whether or not the filming makes it to the program I’m not sure (if it does it will probably be on 28^th Oct) however I had a truly fabulous day with Carol and the team on Friday which is still bringing a smile to my face.

Indian summers (well perhaps just a week actually)

Here in the UK we are having a bit of a hot week, although this is tempered with people on different forums talking about imminent snow and worst winters ever.

Things are looking decidedly autumnal as the garden goes over its best and like a middle aged man things begin to bald, and then bulge and sag in unexpected places.

The exciting thing of the week has been a hardy lotus that has just flowered in the greenhouse. Being a fan of the Far East I love lotuses, and their leaves sum up all that is exotic. I had been after one for a while, but every time I got close to buying one I relented as they were either too expensive or the sellers didn’t want to sell them to me. I wonder if this is something unique to the plant world as you can’t imagine this happening in a clothes or jewellery shop ‘Oh no sir, your bottom looks far too big in that, put them back’. In a way it’s nice as it shows how people care about their plants...I certainly wince when I see loads of carnivorous plants being sold as I know that within a few weeks they will all be dead as people don’t know what to do with them

The lotus is an experiment as people say the main problem with them in the UK is that it isn’t hot or humid enough, and the growing season isn’t long enough for them to put down enough energy into the tubers. Certainly ones I’ve seen outside all look a bit brown and crinkled. So my plan is to grow it in the greenhouse where it is hot and humid, especially from the carnivorous plants. I also want to build a special pond/area for it (at the moment this special area is disguised as a orange B&Q bucket)

So far it seems ok, and it will survive dam it! especially after I built significant muscle carrying it back from Hampton Court flower show (it looked small but there was so much grit in that heavy waterlogged soil)

Arty autumnal mornings, dew and cobwebs. Lets also say we are eating a lot of kale at the moment

So I’m still trying to enjoy the garden, and starting to do the new bits...this was sped up by my parents appearing at the top garden carrying spades and forks, intent on clearing weeded areas and starting to clear virgin soil. I must admit it is good to see properly cleared areas and look forward to these getting bigger.  The garden is also about to get a visit from the BBC, whether or not this works out and if we have what they are looking for I don’t know, but it’s something to tick off the list, more on that later....  

Reach for the stars, climb every mountain high and reach...

Arondodonax still getting bigger, Tithonia and Dahlias hanging on...

Love in the bushes

I had a nice Saturday pottering around and planning a bit for next year. Although the soil is actually very dry, in the last few weeks the garden has been feeling more and more jungly as things grow bigger and lusher. Some things are certainly past their peak and have been knocked around by the wind but it does feel that the plants are taking back control of the garden.

It’s good to begin planning for next year, and I have been taking lots of cuttings which I’m excited to see start growing. I’m also beginning to write things down and ponder the plants I’ve fallen in love with, those that are difficult lovers, those that are bad for me and those which perhaps should be given another chance.

Good lovers

Ricinus 'Zanzi Palm': I love you, you are fabulous this year this year growing to 8ft when I care for you. I have played with you different varieties, and used to like Zanzibarenzis best, however growing both together Zanzi palm is bigger, faster growing and branches more

Nerines: thank you for cheering me up at a bleak time

Persicaria:I love the shape and colour of your leaves and way you spread through your neighbours. I love you.

Kangeroo apple (Solanum) and proper tobacco plants: This year solanum you are the best, as I discovered how you seemed to hate peat free compost which stunts you so started you off in multi purpose and as such you have gone crazy....whether you survive the winter I dont know. Tobacco plants you are just so stately and seemed to have survived the slugs more than N. sylvestris .

Tithonia: I love you, where have you been all my life? before you what did I do? oh how you glow through the garden and bring me colour!

Lovers Ive been bad to in the past and need more care

Nasturshums: how I have dismissed your simplicity and commonness when all along you fill gaps so well with your glowing red flowers stabbing through the green. Next year I promise to plant you earlier so you can invade more fully.

Fatsia polycarpa: Why aren't you as big as you should be and looking magnificent? Is it me? should I be better to you? hopefully in this new space you can grow.

Unrequited love

Astelia: why do you look so good everywhere else apart from with me? with everyone else you are so big and tall, a status and feature plant, but 2 years on you look a bit like an abused bromeliad

Schleffera: I loved you so much, yet you sulk and cause me heartache. You family are expensive lovers and how my heart wept when your cousins S. macrophylla dies suddenly in the spring and S.taiwanna slowly drifted away. Please survive, please come back!

Curculigo: how lusty you made me when I discovered you, but how you suffered in the winter and have sulked ever since. please come back to me...

Lovers that string you along

Coco Yam: I nurtured you and tried to get you going in deepest spring and then you just sat there doing nothing, before suddenly erupting with your beauty so late in the year, being so much better than Eddoes. Now you fill me with lust, but couldn't you have come to life just a little earlier?

Musa sikkimensis: you were so good the first year you came into my life, sailing through the winter and growing to be 12-15ft. Now you are cut to the ground every winter....I helped your brothers and took them under cover but they didn't grow that well, and you popped out of the ground so late in the year but are now growing so fast

Mirabilis longiflora: How rubbish you looked as a seedling, how lax and needing support, but yet here you are now being very impressive with your very long and unusual flowers...why cant you be like this all over the garden? why have you left me awkward patches where I have to turn away from you in shame?

Salvia gesneriflora how I loved you, and even wrote about how good you were but yet over the summer you are incredibly brittle with large chunks breaking off overnight and then not flowering, even now one of your brothers has no flowers at all, arg!

Bad lovers

Cobea: last year you didn't flower and were eaten by slugs, this year you begin to flower now after invading next doors apple tree?! why do you spite me? but yet I cannot give you up as you grow so much and I love your flowers...

Salvia confertiflora: how I fell in love when I met you, gazing longingly at you in the car as I brought you home. How I saw you growing elsewhere as a huge bush 6ft tall, even hardy (so your grower said). Then all through winter I dreamed of you striking a pose in the garden, but then you are as brittle as anything with all 4 of your brothers loosing big chunks in the last couple of months. Yet how I cant let go, and how I take cuttings from all your fallen limbs to create an army of disappointment for next year

Lovers I'm stringing along

Ipomea: how you treated me bad in the last few years growing to 2ft max?! now you are big, but do you fit in? does your blue flowers work with what I want? I don't know but I will play with you while I decide...

Trying to get back on the wagon

Doing the whole NGS thing has been a bit like pushing a rock down a hill as initially it wobbled a bit and stopped , then it ran a bit, then it started gathering more and more speed. The garden has never been far from my mind, and was also the focus for this blog which has also been interesting to do....gosh it was exciting when I got my first reader from Namibia! I think all in, it’s now had about 5000 page views and I hope that I have amused people on the way, thank you to all my followers and people who say nice things. Needless to say I will of course continue.

Although there have been a few downsides (lots of hard work, we haven’t been in an airport for a year) there have also been lots of good things as it has been good to be focused, having the gardening days was also a good way to get people together and the actual day was a great social thing and chance to meet the neighbours. Hard physical graft has also been good for my physique...yes I was of course finely toned and ripped before but now I’m even more so. Being able to grow food has also improved my diet as I love having salad at hand and lots of raspberries growing away. You should also see how excited we get about beetroot in our house....

However I’m now at the point where boulder that has been rolling so fast down the hill seems to have got to the bottom and stopped, and as a result I’m feeling a bit lost. Monday was nice as we had the day off to recover and I had a nice time drinking tea and eating lots of leftover cake on the lawn and wandering around the garden planning. Tuesday though, as I sat in the car with Dad he looked at me and earnestly asked, well what do we do now? Do we still do work in the garden?

I can’t quite just pick up where I left off as although we are opening again next year (Sun 2^nd Sept)  this is so far away and it almost feels like to do this would be giving up on this year. Although it is getting a little autumnal the first frosts are still (hopefully) a good way away and perhaps it is the prospect of frosty deaths, the winter and long dark days that I’m not looking forward to. Perhaps the main thing is that up until now everything has been all about getting the garden to look the best it will all year, and planting for things to grow for the opening, whereas now it is more about tidying and winding down.

I didn’t know if I wanted to do any gardening for a while and have been doing a good job of sitting and enjoying the garden, with the occasional bit of deadheading but lots of aimless wandering. At the weekend I was aso at a bit of a loose end with Steven away embarking on his new past time to be an international tennis umpire and I had a shall I shan’t I garden experience. This did of course not last long and I had a good couple of mornings planting my new forest of Tetrapanax and planning a new surprise formal corner.

So I’m back on the wagon and perhaps trying to create a more normal and healthy gardening relationship. It is very nice to enjoy the garden and have it back to being mine again...for the first time in a couple of weeks I’m picking flowers and harvesting things although my sweet dumpling gourds looked a little better than they tasted. I’m also trying to fit in a visit to Will Giles’s garden, Amultree and Urban Jungle in a few weeks before everything dies down and to overdose with plants. I’m hoping for a few new plant obsessions and can feel a passion for giant American pokeweed brewing (Phytolacca Americana) and also that I need to indulge myself with a trip to Columbia road for some new bamboos. Bring on the plants.

Les objects trouve

Toad lily

Cardoon flowering and giant rhubarb getting bigger

Drosera scorpiodies, j'adore

Datura (innoxia?)

The big day

I have survived. The day that has been so, so, so long coming is now over, and I had a jolly good time!

The closer Sunday got the odder it felt, as we have been building up to opening since about July last year when we had our NGS inspection to get in the book for next year. Opening for NGS has ended up being such a focus for the year, as with being accepted for the first time, buying the new land and developing it from scratch gardening and NGS has never been far from my mind.

After several weeks of intensive weeding I had thought there wasn’t much to do before Sunday, but come Thursday I was getting a bit itchy about it and planned on taking Friday afternoon off.

That evening I had a professional photographer come and take pictures for the Dulwich book. This was very exciting as he was the first person who I didn’t know come to the garden. He was also very complementary, particularly as he thought a lot of gardens tended to look the same, very traditional and were a bit dull. He thought mine was great, and said that with his pictures wanted to make it look a bit like Angkor Wat (this was exactly the right thing to say to me! He is my NBF.)

The weather was of course a big focus, and after telling myself I wouldn’t look at the 5 day forecast I did as soon as it was up. This wasn’t good as rain, my worst nightmare, was forecast. On Thursday all of the 11 websites I looked at showed rain.mmmm.

Friday afternoon was filled of random little things and before long my mother was cleaning my windows and I was painting over the patches on the walls of the terrace and rearranging the carnivorous plants in the greenhouse. I also had a visit from a group and photographer who were doing a RHS book on small gardens...this was also very exciting, although I didn’t particularly think our garden is small.... However their visit was the opposite of the invigorating visit the night before, as while I was waiting I was noticing all the annoying little things that weren’t flowering, or which had been broken. They also got to me late at the end of a long day and didn’t seem especially interested, which did make me feel a little more apprehensive about Sunday.

The in-laws arrived on Friday to help out, and on Saturday we were all busy with bits and pieces....Steven was cake baking like crazy and getting very dispirited over his sponges...dangerous holes were filled in, lawns were mowed. My neighbour also came to help with a final weed and had the good idea to blanket plant an empty area with geraniums he had just split up in his own garden, and before long we had planted about 200, not quite was I was expecting to do the day before.

Sunday was difficult.....Steven woke up at about 5am; I was awake at 6:30 and at 7:30 watched the weather forecast feeling sad, and we made the decision to cover the terrace with a tarp to create a dry cake area. By 8:30 as my parents had their morning coffee I was climbing on their draining board to tie strings to their windows to attach tarps.

All morning the weather ended up being great, and by 12:30 other people who were helping had arrived and we all sat down to eat lunch and do the finishing touches. Then the rain started....then it got very heavy....then the tarp started sagging...then people put on jumpers and started to hide indoors. Oh!

As the 2pm opening came closer and the rain got heavier, we put on our yellow NGS stickers and braced ourselves for visitors. At 2 I went round to the front where the in-laws were installed to do the door not knowing what to find (I had heard tales of people queuing). Alas no one. 2:10. No one. Then at 2:15 an ancient lady appeared! Hurrah! People were going to come! It was all very exciting as the whisper went round that we had a visitor and we didn’t really know what to do as everyone was watching what happened, hoping she didn’t slip and break something. Then someone else came!

I followed lady number 2 to have a chat, and took her up to the top at which point more people came, then more. Once I started talking I didn’t (and couldn’t) move from the top of the garden as so many people wanted to chat about the garden, lots I knew and lots I didn’t, it was great!

Gardening is a funny hobby as in a way it is quite solitary, and I have created my own world which I know intimately and others don’t. Then on this afternoon all of a sudden this world was very full with lots of people all interested in the same things, hurrah!

The afternoon whizzed by and so many people came and said hello...it was really difficult to spend time talking to friends as I would have loved to have had more time with people I hadn’t seen for while, particularly people who had come from a long way...like Clapham, Winchester, or even East London.

All in all we had 130 visitors (this was very exciting as in the lunchtime sweepstake I guessed that there would be 135 people). In terms of where they came from about 43 people found out through NGS, 25 from local advertising, and 39 were people we knew. With sales from cake we raised £500!

Will we do it again? Was it worth it? The day was great, and a bit like our wedding as it was a fabulous whirlwind full of wonderful people. There was an awful lot of prep and hard work with more gardening than I have ever done before...my neighbour who helped the day before and opened a few years ago said it was too much work for him, and by the time he worked out how much it had cost to get the garden right it would have been easier to just write NGS a cheque!

Opening has helped keep me very focused on creating something and getting things right, doing all the little things that you have on your list to do but which never get done. Looking back at photos from exactly the same time the garden is also infinitely better, and I am very proud of what I have created. Are gardeners ever happy? I don’t know! But I am pleased with how things look. It has also shown me what great friends I have and I have met lots of really nice neighbours and local plant folk whom I look forward to bumping into again. Thank you!

We will of course open again next year, but before then I need a big cup of tea and a large piece of cake!