A shed fit for Chelsea

There was a great deal of all-too-predictable harrumphing about this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, mostly in the Times, the Telegraph and the Daily Mail. The complaint? Not enough flowers. Too much ecopreaching. Not enough designing. A lamentable lack of glamour.

The major gripe was over the best-in-show winner, which was a “re-wilding” project and was not, according to sneeringly put it – to British rivers. It included plants at a lean, some dead plants, a rickety shed. It also featured sticks pre-gnawed by beavers, which would certainly demonstrate the industry of said rodents. I would like to meet those beavers so that I could ascertain the authenticity of this claim. Although, as I don’t speak beaver, and as beavers, presumably, don’t speak English, this line of inquiry could prove difficult.