... how does your garden grow ...

Well you wouldn't know it if you looked out of the window today, but on Saturday we had sunshine, glorious, warm, Spring sun! It felt so good to be walking around with less layers on and feeling the heat of the sun on our faces. For the first time in ages I braved the garden and went outside for a good rummage. Yes, that's me in the photo above wafting gently around the place in my silk crinoline admiring the hollyhocks and flower covered archway ...



Actually that's a rather pretty cushion cover I found at a car boot last weekend. Determined to find something, I resorted to delving deep into dirty boxes and was rewarded with this pretty little thing, which was rust stained and smelly but responded well to some TLC. Not bad for 50p! Not only looking lovely now on an old chair but it goes remarkably well with an old apron that I caught Miss Blossom wearing the other day ...



she too has obviously got her mind on Spring and the flowers in her garden.



How I would love my garden to be full of these cottage garden flowers all Summer long. Not just the lovely display that lasts for a couple of weeks and then limps sadly through till September.



A garden full of interest the whole summer long is my aim in life! Not that easy with the squirrels eating all the bulbs, the slugs and snails munching on the foliage and two cats who love to lie on top of the most promising plants, just when they're coming into bloom.



Still. I mustn't give up hope. I guess the key is planning (and money!). Any seedlings I grow seem to disappear overnight and I am going to have to try and beg, borrow but not steal some new plants this year. I have in my mind exactly what I want to fill the gaps, drifts of foxgloves, hollyhocks and poppies all blooming nonstop!



I love looking through old gardening books for photos and pictures, the cover of this little book is gorgeous. I have not just been reading gardening books and walking oh so elegantly around my garden in my crinoline surveying the slowly awakening borders - I have been busy making these:



Lovely lavender sachets made from cotton printed with images from some much treasured vintage French seed packets. Not only have I found the urge to sew again, I have really, really been enjoying myself. I don't know if it's just seeing the beautiful graphics on the packets transformed into sachets, the pretty flowers on one side and the charming old growing instructions in French on the other, or the feeling of optimism that they produce, Spring is on its way!


Trays full of them have been produced. some have been sent to some shops and some are in my Etsy shop if you'd like to have a look. The equivalent of a potting shed full of summer promise. So until my make believe garden is full of those hollyhocks and I tire of wearing my bonnet and crinoline, at least I have the gorgeous scent of lavender wafting gently over me each time I walk into the room - nearly as good as my imaginary Mary Mary quite contrary garden, but not quite...