SuburbanGaze

We have just returned from a morning at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival.   Its something that we do spontaneously dependent on the weather.  The thought of being stuck in a muddy field if its rained on the weeks leading up to the show is too much to bear to purchase tickets in advance.   This year we travelled to the show with M who is a seasoned visitor.  We have a common goal when it comes to horticultural events.  Get in really early, cover as much ground as possible, don't take it too seriously, get out by lunch. I liked two things this year that were real stand-outs.  They were: This Fabergé-like egg thing with steam 'Greenhance: Garden in the Egg' which was stunning and so unusual.  My OH likened it to something high-brow from a Ridley-Scott creation.  I couldn't get the '80s film Cocoon off my mind.   And this modern and masculine space 'Urban Oasis' which reminded us of the dark g...

I had a conversation today about Dandelions ( Taraxacum officinale) .  They seem to be everywhere at the moment.  Some of them are enormous with elongated stems proudly displaying their yellow heads high above large rosettes of foliage.  The wet weather must be ideal conditions for them.  It got me thinking, why I have a love/hate relationship with them? Maybe it Is because we work hard in our gardens to achieve the results that we desire yet these self-seeders quickly populate our space effortlessly, returning year after year when nothing else seems to thrive. Perhaps these negative feelings are embedded in our makeup.  As a youngster I believed that if you touched a Dandelion you would wet yourself, something I must have heard in the playground.  I also associated them with plants that dogs would alleviate themselves on; strange on reflection.  Digging a bit deeper I have found that the French call them 'Pissenlit' which is possibly where ...