Garden therapy

The last day of January and it feels like it's been a long, long month. Getting back into the swing of the day job has been tough. So January blues have to end now and where better to cheer us up and remind us of the joys of summer to come than the new exhibition at the Royal Academy, 'Painting the Modern Garden'. I was luckily invited to a preview so have already smiled my way along glorious garden paths, deep into masses of colour, around heady corners of radiant blooms and of course, across Monet's magical water garden bridge. The exhibition is both dreamy and exhilarating, making you want to both stop and stare but at the same time, race on to see what the next room has in store. From my time working with the folks at Chelsea Physic Garden, I know only to well how much work it takes to make a garden thrive and for plants and flowers to display at their best. I learned that Monet employed six gardeners at Giverny as well as he himself being a designer and expert horticulturalist. All that natural beauty didn't happen by chance! So I'm re-inspired to work harder in my own garden this year, to make my little patch of Hanwell more colourful than before. Roll on spring!