RHS garden shows are ongoing through May, June, July and August. Hampton Court I visited a few years back and I decided to try it again this year. I booked tickets as a member so got to attend on a day which is members only. That didn’t mean it was quiet however! It was exceptionally busy at all points of the day, even when I followed everyone to the entrance and was held back because it was too early. They let us into Hampton Court gardens but not into the show ground.

I was earlier arriving than my friend so I wandered in and visited a few stalls. I chatted to a few people and had even spoken to a couple of exhibitors on the train. It’s a generally laid back audience who just want to talk plants and gardening. Everywhere we went there were queues and despite my usual fatigue levels being high I used my pull along trolley to balance on. My friend thought I had bought it to make plant purchases but I managed to go round several pavilions without bringing home some beautiful perlagoniums, alliums, nerines or cosmos.

There were fabulous fly eating pitcher plants and Venus fly traps, but I wasn’t tempted and the salvias failed to fall into my trolley too.I’ll probably have to show you some of the plants with labels to make you understand the vast encyclopaedia of garden plants I could have walked out with – even some lilac roses caught my eye. But I am aware of my weed problem and the dog wandering round behind me at all times, and it lessens my ability/enthusiasm for true gardening. The weeds are horrible in my garden and I was probably in need of a stall which gave weed advice. The BBC show garden was a mishmash of gardening tips and helpful ways of gardening but it didn’t inspire me.

There was lots of things I like but I just felt tired thinking of where I could put the plants. Lots of things I could do if I was back earning megabucks (unlikely) but we talked about how we are both looking to make our life easier by working from home. I have to take the things I’ve learned writing my blog and see if I can’t generate an income, but then I need to have ideas and bring them to fruition.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day and wasn’t sure what I would be able to do, but I’ve not done much since (apart from being mummy shuttle) so plant purchases would have been a bad idea! I know a lot of my favourites will be appearing in my garden soon but not in the current couple of weeks!