Any weed will do

When you have such a large vase in your home you need plenty of pretty plants to fill it to a satisfactory volume. I have nothing to offer from the cutting garden just yet. The lillies are putting on lusty growth in the vegetable garden, but they are a month or so off flowering. So as a filler we collected handfuls of cow parsley on our walk around Mont Godin this week. It’s the weed of choice in this area. Later in the year I hope to have all sorts of home grown things. But right now, any weed will do.

And speaking of weeds: here is the before and after picture of a concrete planter over at St Michel de Chabrillanoux. Having volunteered to help pretty up the village on the green committee, I seem to have inherited the Protestant church. The Catholic church up at the other end of the village is blooming and loved and very well tended by Amelie. But no-one seems to have much enthusiasm for this protestant one. Plenty of people in the churchyard with local names. But not on the gardening committee. So from London came some ornamental grasses, plus some pretty mauve scabiosa flowers. I potted them up one damp Saturday afternoon. And helped remove about four years worth of ivy from the walls and surrounding fences.

Driving back home, I spotted the very mauve scabious growing wild just near the letterbox on our very property. Vexing. All those wasteful miles to bring a plant from Wisley garden centre over on the train and into the village. When what I should have done was grub up the weeds around our own house. There’s a message there.