Veg Plotting

We had a lovely time at Avebury Manor 's sculpture exhibition on Saturday and my friend W  kindly sent me this jolly photo from the day afterwards. When I saw it I giggled at how my chosen outfit picked out the colours of the Orangutan sculpture we found dangling in one of the trees, so it just had to be added to my irregular  series,  Separated at Birth today. I'm giggling again at how appropriate the series name is for this particular subject, seeing we're such a close relative to primates. It's lovely to have some humour back on the blog again - for those of you confused by my labelling, this series gives a nod to a series of the same name in Private Eye , where they deliberately label the items featured the wrong way round. I see they've now renamed the series Lookalikes, which you can see here .

Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it ...

A while ago I blogged about my mystery clematis and then its  Case Solved , but I've never actually shown you the blooms at the centre of the mystery together. Both are looking especially lovely here at VP Gardens this year, so I couldn't resist making them the subject of this month's Blooms Day . The mysterious clematis is the one on the right, sold to me as C . 'Crystal Fountain', which is actually the one on the left. You can easily see why I was puzzled, and also why my bloom with its mistaken identity still has the wow factor with anyone visiting the garden. Several years after it appeared here, Raymond Evison launched my mysterious bloom as C . 'Diamantina' at Chelsea Flower Show. It's a sport of C . 'Crystal Fountain', so I really do have a case of Separated at Birth in my garden. What delightful mysteries have you had to solve in your garden? Garden Bloggers Blooms Day is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens .

Back in the summer on a trip to London, I at last found some time to gawp at the Athenaeum Hotel 's green wall. Designed and executed by that master of vertical gardens Patrick Blanc , it's a fantastic showstopper on Piccadilly. Imagine my surprise to find another green wall just a few doors down the road, using plastic greenery this time. You can decide which one's which in the above photo. It looked like the artificial one was being used to screen the building work being carried out on the former In and Out club aka Cambridge House. This was a private members club for officers and gentlemen of the armed forces which relocated to nearby St James's Square in 1999. The building lay empty for many years, which is surprising for a Grade I listed building in such a prime location. Earlier sources said the building is set to be the nation's most expensive home once renovation work is complete, though judging by the the latest report s it's unclear whethe...

AOL's sign-on screen rotates through a number of pictures and now my moth orchid 's back in bloom this month, it's the ideal time to have a play with the pictures to bring you this post. Hat Tip to Private Eye , who always label their pictures the wrong way round for their Lookalikes feature. Could they be related? I think we should be told.

Just like last year's Unexpected Items in the Bagging Area , time spent in the Great Pavilion on the last day of this year's build provided a neat insight into how Chelsea happens. Here we have the original design drawings and the execution of the National Dahlia Collection 's Surreal Pillars of Mexico exhibit. This gives a nod to the south American origins of the late-summer blooms I love. I always marvel how so many bright show-grade flowers can be produced so early in the season. This was one of the largest exhibits in the Great Pavilion and deservedly won Gold.

Two plantings of birch I found recently in London - very different in their style and effect Compare and contrast the birches outside Tate Modern (left) and those close to Regent's Park in St Andrew's Place (next to the Royal College of Physicians ). The idea behind the Tate's birches could be due to the greater footfall this area gets, or to echo the sparseness of the architecture behind it and the modern art the building holds. Or perhaps both? Apparently there'll be foxgloves and alliums beneath the birches in St Andrew's Place later in the year. A change of scene is something to look forward to. We also have a line of birches at the entrance to our estate at the top of the hill. Initially it was underplanted with lavender, but these were replaced with grass once they'd become woody. I suppose it's cheaper for the council to look after, but perhaps it's time for an estate-led makeover...

Separated at Birth? Hydroponic - ish grown tomatoes (left) vs those grown in containers as usual We're taking a break from our usual Salad Days broadcast re salad leaves to have a look at how my tomato crop is faring and to see some preliminary results from trialling a self-watering container. NB These planters strictly speaking aren't hydroponics ones because they're using compost as the growing media: with hydroponics an inert material such as a  mineral wool or clay pebbles are used. However, I believe the kit I'm using utilises many of the principles of hydroponics and can be used to explain what this growing method is about. As you can see the self-watering container on shown on the left (aka Quadgrow) consists of four planters which sit above a large tank of water. Inside, a strip of absorbent material is fed through a hole in the bottom of each planter and the material acts as a wick to transfer the water into the compost. Far less compost is needed tha...

My inbox is currently flooded with press releases exhorting me to 'get the Chelsea look' by choosing from a set of products they've put together to cash in on  present alongside this week's coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show . Here's my shortlist of 'must haves', chosen from various emails ;) #1 Water Features Separated at Birth? Trailfinders waterfalls vs a slate fountain "A key element [in the Trailfinders garden - Ed ] was waterfalls and natural stone to create a tranquil and relaxing garden. These slate monoliths (from £139) are undrilled from quarries and each one is unique, standing from 2ft to 8ft."  #2 Bedding Actually, this look from the WaterAid garden is very achievable, but Tagetes wasn't available in the selection on offer. A surprising amount of bedding was seen at Chelsea this year - the WaterAid ones symbolise the income Indian women are able to earn from growing and making ceremonial garlands, once th...

One of the things I've learned since starting The 52 Week Salad Challenge is that the beansprouts we find in the shops are sprouted in the dark and under pressure. I'd always wondered why the ones I grow on my kitchen window turn out so differently and now I know. It got me pondering how different my sprouted seeds would be depending on whether I grew them in the dark or light. Sprouted lentils have become a firm favourite with NAH lately, so I resolved to try growing some in both light and dark conditions. I've grown 2 lots of seeds in the same way as outlined in my Let's Eat Shoots and Leaves post, except for one batch has been sitting in the airing cupboard for 99.99% of its allotted 7 days. The photo shows the results, with the air cupboard grown lentil posing at the top. It's interesting to see how the seedling part of the air cupboard grown lentil is pale and stretching itself to find the light (ie it's etiolated ) but the root is much shorte...

We may not live in a stately home such as Dyrham Park (though we are situated on the remains of the old Hardenhuish estate ), but it's rather nice to feel that the avenue of relatively new trees which lines the main road echoes the design of its older, more aristocratic National Trust cousin. We don't have a herd of deer whose bloodline dates back to the early 1600s though, hence there's no need for our trees to be protected from their marauding mouths. NB for those of you a little confused by my pictures and text, it's traditional in Private Eye to swap the captions around on the two pictures ;)

Twins spotted at Palmstead's Soft Landscaping Workshop and my local Sainsbury's supermarket recently. For those of you who don't know who Landscape Man is, this link tells you everything. You may also like to follow @LandscapeMan on Twitter :) * = with affectionate nods in the direction of Arabella Sock and Private Eye ;)