This I had a quick look round part of the garden and noticed an odd weed here and there, also one or two things which needed dead-heading, not much to do, or so I thought. A little later I went to do these minor maintenance jobs and managed to fill the wheelbarrow in about half an hour. Once I got stuck in I realised that the spent stems of foxgloves and poppies needed pulling out, the tamarix needed some branches pruning where they were over-hanging other plants and, annoyingly there were brambles which had to be dug out. How they get to be so big so quickly is beyond me. I suspect that if I left the garden for a year it would be covered in Brambles, creeping buttercup and rose-bay willow herb. Also, how do aquilegias get everywhere when I try so hard to confine them to one border? I don’t even like them very much.

I dearly hope the autumn will be suitable for doing lots of planting, something I missed out on last year due to the sogginess of the ground.