Good afternoon everyone,

Isn't it beautiful outside? Well, it is in London at least, right now. I hope that it's beautiful where you are as well. I hope your Friday is off to a good start. One of the things that is beautiful to me now is that I am planting wee plants on my windowsill AND THEY ARE ACTUALLY GROWING so here is a Fem Fri about plants and that.

Vita Sackville-West was good at basically everything, including gardening. I had no idea about this until today but she is in large part responsible for how great Sissinghurst looks:

Vita was a gifted amateur who gardened instinctively and without the desire for perfection. When it came to planting she didn’t want to see the soil but vibrant flower beds bursting with colour – in her words she wanted to ‘cram cram, every chink and cranny’.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sissinghurst-castle-garden/features/a-famous-garden-at-sissinghurst-castle-garden-kent

Staying between the wars, here's Norah Lindsay, who took up gardening to avoid penury after her marriage collapsed. She was really good at both landscape design (pictured) and making people like her (not pictured)

In 1924, at the age of 51, with her marriage having fallen apart and with her financial situation dire, she put her garden design skills to use and embarked upon a garden design career that continued for the next two decades. Her commissions ranged from manor houses on the country lanes of England, and grand aristocratic estates, to royal gardens on the Continent. Her client base consisted of royalty, English nobility, and American expatriates.

http://norahlindsay.com/about-norah/

Gertrude Jekyll was also good at everything, and I've seen her lovely garden at Lindisfarne. Just as soon as you are able, go to Lindisfarne, it is an incredible place that I think about often:

She was a musician, composer, embroiderer, woodworker, metalworker, artist, garden writer, photographer and botanist. Above all, though, she was the creator of plans and designs for around 300 gardens in Britain and some abroad in France and the United States. She wrote some 15 books and over 2,000 articles for magazines, including Country Life and The Garden, (1870) founded by William Robinson. She also photographed and developed her own pictures.

https://www.discoverbritainmag.com/gertrude_jekyll_gardens/

Have a lovely weekend,

A xx.