more from the Hampton Court Flower show

While I was at the Hampton court flower show I had a lot of information given to me. I learnt about some of the common pests in the garden. I learnt about one of the pests we have, I forget the name but it is in my notebook, they look like witchety grubs from I'm a celebrity get me outta here. They eat the roots of the plants which explains what happened to my flowers. So I will be putting that advice to use.
We also learnt a lot about bees and their importance, whilst I was not ignorant to this ti is useful for other people to tell Stephanie as she believes them more than me. I collected this information;

I will use this both at work and at home. I plan on doing a lot more outdoor learning and trying to get the whole school involved. This should help with our learning about living things. There is also a lot information about growing bee friendly plants.

 

I also spoke to a lady from ecover and bought this bag of goodies;

 

A bargain at just £5.00 for all of them.

 

We were given a parasol by a team member from the Mcarthy and stone garden. Stephanie and I had just looked around the garden and were sat to the side whilst I applied more sunscreen and a lovely lady gave us a parasol. Here is Stephanie playing with it in the garden;

 

 

The day really was amazing. I would definitely like to go again.

 

Hampton court flower show

Stephanie and I have had a fabulous day, we haven't spent too much either. I paid a pound less than I expected for our train fares once I got to the station. So £14.95 for our train tickets, then we got the ferry to the flower show £5.00, £2.50 on an ice cream for Stephanie and I spent £5.00 on Ecover goodies and £4.00 on extra drinks. In total we spent £31.45. Take a look at some of our pictures from today;

On the train on route to London

On the ferry

Enjoying our picnic under the shade of a big tree.

A memory picture for me, I want to try this!

We loved this archway. I wonder if we could manage something similar next to our shed?

Me in the arch

Willow art!

Beautiful view of the Palace

Zoomed in

I need to find what these plants are- I love them! the person helping at the stand wasn't sure so I shall be googling later.

This garden was about the decline of the ash trees. Very halloweeny and different to all other gardens there.

This was the Macmillan garden, there is a mirror there I was trying to show. The mirrors are there to represent the Macmillan nurses, there for families when they need them but unobtrusive when they don't. Very much the way my family have found them to be when caring for my Nan and Mum, so a garden very close to my heart.

Another try at capturing the mirror.

 

 

 

"Mum can I get under that shower?"

The very beautiful Ecover garden

 

We have had a fantastic day. We have admired many plants, talked about which ones we would like in our garden. We decided to look around and then decide what we wanted to buy, however we couldn't remember where to find what we had wanted, and we were too hot and bothered to go around again. So we are going to try and source some of them online/locally.

I still have many more pictures to show you but these will do for today.

 

I'm just going to finish by saying a big thank you to Compostwoman for hosting the giveaway which I was lucky enough to win, and Ecover for providing the tickets.

We're off!!

Today it is a girly day here at the little  family of 3. Dylan has chosen not to be involved in this adventure. Stephanie and I are off to the Hampton court flower show, courtesy of Ecover and Compostwoman's giveaway. I'm rather excited!!

I am hoping to get lot's of inspiration for our little garden to make it a better growing space. I am also hoping for some ideas I can take into school as I try to develop our outside spaces for the children to use. So as my camera is broken, I have my fully charged phone and I have charged Stephanie's camera for us to use today.

I am so excited to have been given the 2 tickets for us to go, and as always I am watching the pennies. I am going to get us there using the train and our family and friend's railcard. It will cost me £15.85 using the railcard, Without it the journey would cost me £27.90. So I have saved the £60 roughly on tickets to get in, £12.05 on train fares so already a total of £72.05.

To help keep the costs low I have also packed this little lot;

Some cucumber slices

strawberries

cheese sandwiches

Croissants and hula hoops.

 

 

bottle of water each (filled from the tap!) 1 bottle of squash for Stephanie and a bottle of lemonade for me (filled from a large cheap bottle in the fridge).

Also I have packed some paper napkins left over from Stephanie's birthday party and some wet wipes collected during a previous trip out somewhere. All of our food and drink has been packed using what was already in my kitchen, I have not purchased any extras/ special treats specifically for today.

So I should save a bit on food too. If the day gets too hot I may end up buying a couple of bottles of water, shall see how we go.

All this saving means that if I see something at the show that I really want and will be useful to us I can buy it using my budget given to me by the children's lovely Nan.

I am cutting as many corners as I can with our spending as I am in the middle of buying something very large, costing an amount like I would never normally spend, More about that another day when all is finalised!