Evening all. Our avid reader will be wondering what’s been happening since my last update, since the blog has gone quieter than a church mouse with a sore throat. The simple answer is I’ve been very busy. Tomorrow sees the end of a three and a half week garden installation which has gone very smoothly but has also been extremely hard work. We’ve been terracing a sloping garden, and I’ll post some pictures when it’s all finished. Away...

Our reader may remember I penned an article, back in June, about conserving water in the garden. I wrote it because the long-term summer forecast from the Met Office had predicted what tabloids call ‘a scorcher’. Sadly, for headline writers and everybody else, the government’s highly paid scientists got it badly wrong. If they had been correct I should now be giving you advice on how to bring some life back into your parched lawns. And,...

Yesterday I learned that my grandmother has passed away. She was a much loved and loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and I shall miss her very much. Rest in peace Nan x. Ellen Garner, 1913-2009.