Honestly, the Duchess of Cambridge’s garden-design for the Chelsea Flower Show has been hyped for months. There were even hype stories in January! It was bizarre to spend this long talking about a garden-design for a flower show. People even tried to make it controversial by suggesting that Meghan would “one up” Kate at the flower show by turning up at CAMFED’s garden and stealing Kate’s garden-thunder. At the end of the day, it felt more like Kate was trying to steal the thunder from the Sussexes on their first wedding anniversary, especially with the new photos of the Cambridge kids enjoying the garden. As I said yesterday, while the timing gave me pause, I think Kate was mostly hemmed in by the timing of the Chelsea Flower Show, which she could not control.

After spending much of Monday in those hideous brown culottes, Kate left her garden for a few hours for a change. You see, the Queen was coming to inspect Kate’s garden and Kate wanted to be wearing a more flower-show-appropriate ensemble. So she changed into this Erdem dress. I won’t take credit for the “Little House on the Prairie” reference, I saw several of those online, and I had to laugh because once you see it, you can’t unsee it. It’s the combination of the sleeves with the ruffle down the chest and the too-high neckline. Kate was aiming for “flowery and conservative” and she ended up a frontierswoman by way of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The wedges are the cherry on top – they do not match or have anything to do with the dress at all. Even a pair of flat ballet slippers would have looked better.

Apparently, Kate was quite keen to show her garden to the Queen. While she awaited Her Maj’s arrival, Kate was seen tidying up the space, “picking up leaves and twigs that had drifted on to the walkways — hastily putting them into her handbag.” She was rewarded with high praise from the Queen: “It’s very tidy.” LMAO and just fyi, we are talking about an actual garden and not Kate’s lady bits. Although I imagine all royal women are expected to keep their private gardens very tidy too. No rose bushes allowed.

Here’s the video from the Sunday activities, including Charlotte refusing to help George with something (she issued a curt “no!” to her father’s query) and Charlotte yelling “OH LA LA” at the little creek. Then Kate is interviewed and her weird posh hybrid voice is just crazy. Her accent sounds different every time she speaks.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.