My garden diary - 22nd - 28th May 2017

GrowGirl.com – Diary – Week May 22^nd – 28^th

Playing hooky from my allotment at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens with family from Australia, taking a break from the watering and weeding at the vegetable allotment and heavy digging up of my new flower-bee allotment, in Oxfordshire.

We catch-up over coffee and lunch at Kew’s Victoria Gate eatery and glorious shop then saunter over to view the grounds from the exciting Treetop Walk.  After lunch, we visit the Woodland Garden where on a huge clump of Nepeta by the Peony collection, a mass of feverishly pollen-collecting bees, attract my photo-snapping friend’s attention.  Apparently, there are no honeybees to be seen in Australia and, determined to have a photo to take home, my friend zooms in on the busy bees, whose attention they keenly ignore.

Then to revisit The Hive, the prize-winning British design by Nottingham-based Wolfgang Buttress for the 2015 Milan International Expo, installed at Kew for its summer installation on Saturday, 18th June, and the highlight of our 2016 Kew get-together.  The giant aluminium construction is linked to a real bee hive in the Gardens, where a sensor picks-up and translates every bee activity into a sound and light show within The Hive.  Light bulbs flash and waves of changing sound fill the structure, fascinating and delightful to all visitors.  A beautiful wild flower meadow, including Campion, Dianthus and Ribwort plantain surrounds The Hive, which departs Kew Gardens later this year, making us grateful we could view it again.  Helpful staff were on hand to highlight the bees struggle to survive.

We complete our day with a glass of wine and a little must-do holiday shopping as another glorious Kew day ends, tearing ourselves away and heading home-bound.  Compelling amongst an impressive list of highlights, the Nepeta bush is a must-have plant for my flower-bee allotment, which I will look for at one of my local plant-garden centres this weekend.  Also, a few Alliums for my herbaceous border, simply because of their height and stunning flower-head.

Margaret Halstead

Copyright © Margaret Halstead 2017

Holidays

The trouble with a holiday is that it takes you out of your normal run of activities, opening up your world to the wider view, free from everyday restraints and concerns.  Thus freed from your regular self, new horizons and opportunities open up before your dazzled gaze and life takes on a new enthusiasm .  You encounter different places, streets, towns, scenery and countries anew and the experience makes you giddy and light-headed.

Worse still when you return home, trying to re-acclimatize yourself to your own world, somehow finding this favourite world lacklustre and dull,

It isn't, of course, but jaded eyes make it seem so and long-travel hours almost deprive you of the will to live.  Just wait a while, re-gather your energies, organise photos and travel memories and engage with future activities and plans and eventually all will be well.

And then, well, you can start looking forward to y our next holiday venture.

The excitement continues... I'm looking forward to revisiting Melbourne some day xxx

Margaret Halstead
Copyright © Margaret Halstead
May 2017