My gardening DIARY

MONDAY Thank goodness for the rain, it’s all very well to enjoy spring sunshine but when the weather alternates between dry, sunny days and cold, cold nights and your arms seem to be ge ing longer day by day from carrying watering cans, you wonder why you ever moaned about it raining too much!

TUESDAY Woodland plants are always associated with spring, the Cinderella plants that have to get everything done before the clock strikes 12; snowdrops, wood anemones and their like, have the stage to themselves in spring. By the time summer comes there’s a lull. During autumn though, as the leaves thin out, another opportunity presents itself, We’re planting autumn-flowering anemones to take advantage of it.

WEDNESDAY It‘s been so cold, it hardly felt feasible to sow squash and pumpkins, let alone runner beans and sweetcorn, but if we don’t get a move on, it will be too late. These are sown in individual pots and given protection.

THURSDAY Hope you’re enjoying our programme, Gardening with

Carol Klein on Channel 5. We had a lot of fun making it and hope there’s plenty of inspiration.

FRIDAY Sowing carrots in our big veg troughs. Instead of sowing in rows, I’m sowing in square feet, sprinkling seeds sparingly so there will be no need to thin.

SATURDAY

Beds in the brick garden are chocka-block with plants apart from a couple on either side where there are lots of empty spaces.

Perhaps these two should incorporate more autumn flowerers, which would help too when our lovely crew come back to film in September. Blue asters are at the top of the list.

SUNDAY Assessing where our seed-growing programme is up to. Sometimes in May, the realisation dawns that it’s time to get a move on or it will be too late.