Greed

 
I have to admit it, I am an un-ashamedly greedy gardener. Each time I think I can limit myself to a few plants some others manage to creep into the list. My mind fills with day dreams of wandering past tightly packed beds, full of beautiful blooms and floaty flora to pick armfuls of posies and bouquets, usually in the mid-summer twilight, to the gentle melody of bird song.... you get the idea!

I think that is probably what attracts me so much to Chelsea, finished gardens completed within weeks! Just the kind of instant fix that makes my mouth water. I wander round the bare patches of my garden, sown with flower seeds and literally will the little seedlings to grow bigger, grow stronger, grow faster! I find myself wishing the Spring and Summer away, thinking "In June that will be in flower" or "maybe everything will look fuller in August" and "I need to prepare more in Autumn for next year!"

Last year was the first year that I felt the garden was starting to become more established and had began to fill out the few empty patches. Now, with the garden room work and the mini-landscaping completed, I have gained more space but also feel like I have gone back a few stages. The blocks of empty earth once home to little lavender bushes or lovely shrubs lost to the building work seem to gaze mournfully at me.

I start compiling my wish list, perversely it seems easier to begin by trying to identify things I wouldn't have on my list "ok, so no dahlias - oh wait what about that Cafe au Lait one?" so then dahlias are on the list. I do a Google image search to see what the plant looks like and see an image of Roman Chamomile as well, that goes down on the list as too as does Echinacea, Sea Holly, Salvias... The list was already as long as my arm before I began, now it seems to stretch to eternity!

For this very reason I had to limit my exposure to the Chelsea Flower show coverage and Gardener's World. Last week, as I watched Monty Don pot up some wrinkled sweetcorn kernels, I started thinking, "hmm, no I don't think I'll grow sweetcorn" but then he mentioned something about eating a fresh cob slick with melted butter and I found myself ordering a batch of "Little Nugget" sweetcorn seeds, I haven't even received them yet let alone planted them and I'm already looking forward to the harvest! As a green fingered Gordon Gekko might say, it would appear that greed is definitely good.