I really want a neat plot

I really, really need to buy a strimmer (a long handled petrol driven brush cutter) and they cost a fortune around £160. So I want to actually see one before I buy. You can order them over the internet, but it’s not the same as lifting it and seeing how heavy the darn thing is. I diligently looked at our area and found a large garden centre called the Chelsea Gardener about half a mile from home.  Perfect. I’ll pop and check out the range I thought.

Oh foolish girl. This is Chelsea and South Kensington. They have professional gardeners to do the heavy work. The entire garden centre was given over to expensive pots, expensive orchids, and amazingly overpriced hand carved wooden tools. And nothing electrical or petrol driven at all. I asked at the counter and the woman sneered at me and replied ‘Madame, central London is just not the place to have large gardens that require lawn care.’ I felt like showing off and saying I have one – but it’s not true, my garden is definitely not central. And besides, they did have some lovely seeds and flower bulbs. So I contented myself with buying those instead. Nerines at last (I have admired them in Ruth Scrivener’s garden in the Blue Mountains for years, and Bron and John’s garden in Scotland.), plus nasturtiums to cover the ground around the veg; more coriander seeds, salad leaves, very early carrots (ever the optimist after last year’s debacle) and more broad beans.

London is such a conundrum. Too, too big and too specialised. I will have to trek somewhere way out of town for electrical equipment. But buy the strimmer I shall. I weeded there yesterday and found so many slugs lurking in the long grass at the sides of my plot. I’m not going to let them hide this year.  And I really want a neat plot