PREPARE FOR LIFE THROUGH
(my gardener who helps me one day a week) always seemed to arrive on days when the rain was torrential. Rather foolishly, I had also booked myself in to work elsewhere for far too many spring weekends, which is my only real window for getting out into the garden. When I realised how much there was to be done in such a short space of time, I first panicked, then planned my work rationally, setting myself lots of deadlines. I left the office at 5pm each day (usually unheard of), which gave me a good three hours to work in the garden every evening, while still allowing for some relaxation over supper. Finding these hours every night was the equivalent to making two whole extra days a week. And they really were productive. For one thing, the change between sitting at the drawing board or computer screen and getting out there and immersing yourself in the garden is energising in itself, and led to my unintentionally losing a couple of pounds as an additional reward. Overall, the experience felt a bit like doing a show garden: the scrutiny, looming deadlines and satisfaction of blitzing bits and “finishing” them at last, pulling everything together. However, I must admit that despite all my planning and my best efforts, some corners had to be cut. I tried to view the garden as if through the photographer’s lens and focused on how to fix less satisfactory areas. I have an eating area made of Breedon gravel, a type of bound gravel that does not wreck high heels and is fine for bikes and wheelchairs (breedon-specialaggregates.co.uk). It was laid about 30 years ago, but after all the heavy rain, the moss had got more of a hold than should have been allowed. After treating the gravel it looked less golden but more It’s easy not to notice the real state of your garden when you see it every day. Take photographs and scrutinise them, it will give you a newperspective Deadhead your flowers, remove lifeless leaves, edge lawns and sweep paths to your heart’s content If your borders lack colour, paint a wigwamof brightly coloured bamboo canes You can also encourage roses and other plants to flower with high-potash feed Invest in cushions, bean bags and deckchairs to make the garden more inviting grubby, so I threw down a few handfuls of new aggregate, watered it and rolled it and it bounced back to almost its former glory. Another area not quite living up to its potential was a border I have been working on of mainly blues and purples (delphiniums, astrantias, salvias and more). It lacked cohesion, but was happily brought up to scratch by pulling through some standard roses, Rosa “Munstead Wood”, my favourite, dark-purple repeatflowering English rose, which tied it all together beautifully. I also did a little judicious trimming, including cutting a viewing dip into a hedgerow so I can have better conversations with my cows while working in the adjacent borders. You might think of me as a mad cow for such an indulgence, but I am not quite so mad as all that: my four Dexters trot over whenever they spot me in the garden, salivating as they wait for prunings of fruits, vines, young hazel, hornbeam and other succulents – which are ideal for them, and which saves me the time and effort of carting all my prunings to the compost heap. I even spent a little time on window dressing, arranging my watering cans to the best effect and putting potted plants on the tables. Sadly, I did not have time to rake the gravel in the yard, but I will refresh it this weekend. A friend who lives in a grand old house nearby has banged nails into a large square of timber that he