Show season advances

While our little taste of spring may have disappeared in yet another week of windy, cool conditions, with not a little rain, we are nevertheless advancing towards the show season. Harrogate (from 23rd April) kicks off the season for me, followed by Chelsea.

Chelsea, this year, I think is going to be both interesting and exciting. Although the economic conditions will doubtless cause problems for all the major shows this year, I think the fact that there will be slightly fewer gardens may work to visitors advantage.

There will be more time to absorb and certainly to be entertained by the increasing number of major foreign designers who are exhibiting gardens this year. I am particularly looking forward to the Laurent-Perrier garden designed by Luciano Giubbilei, who has comented that for him Chelsea is a personal and inspirational experience. Swedish designer Ulf Nordfjell will be designing the Daily Telegraph Garden. So just two to look out for.

Over the last few months we have continued to make improvements to the website. We have now linked with The Garden Channel which you can link to from our home page - there are plenty of short snips for you to watch with plenty of gardening advice. Several of you have commented how much easier you find it to navigate the site. We are always interested to hear your views so please let us know if there is anything you would like to see on the website.

We have already started our Chelsea coverage so keep checking out the website for up-to-date news. In the meantime, we can only hope that after this weekend we may yet see the coming signs of spring and be able to enjoy a new season in our gardens once more.