We have had an extended period without any significant rain and the garden is beginning to suffer. There are  deep cracks everywhere I look. I don’t water it partly because it would cost us a fortune because we are on a meter and there aren’t enough hours in the day so the plants have to struggle. They almost always survive so I’m not too bothered.

The RHS recently sent out a questionnaire regarding plants which tolerate being waterlogged and then being parched. My list was rather long because there are so many plants which seem to cope with these extremes at Bridge Nursery. Admittedly I did lose some roses, they do hate sitting in saturated ground for half of the winter but that was unusual.

Yesterday I went with my father to one of the ‘shed’ chain stores for him to buy one or two bits and bobs. I couldn’t resist looking at some of their plants and wasn’t very surprised to see that most of them were so dry that they could only be rehydrated by dunking them in a bucket of water. More stock to end up in the bin or maybe a few beginner gardeners might buy them only to find that they will die within days. How many people return dead plants to get their money back I wonder?