Gardnin'

My hands look as if I've dug the Channel tunnel using my fingers instead of a spade. If I ever had cuticles I don't anymore. But what a lot I've achieved in the garden. I've tamed the rambling rose that grows up the trellis outside my kitchen window, forcing the very pliant stems to stick to the wood rather than just reach for the skies. I can't remember its name, something like Arabella. Naturally my hands are all scratched now too. I planted out six huge pink dahlias in the perennial bed where they will have to fight with everything else for space to bloom. I also put in a new rose, very dark red/nearly black, it is. I have a load of aquilegia and several platycoden to find spaces for too, though the other beds are not so crammed. Trying to decide where to put the rest of the dahlias is proving difficult. They are red Bishop of Llandaff, and several yellow/orangey ones which I loved when I bought them but am not sure now, both lots with dark leaves which I do favour. Should I mix them and have splashes of red and yellow together, or keep them separate? I don't know yet.

I waylaid Mark and Sharon, my neighbours, as they set off on a bike ride together, and asked them if they knew about the concrete in my garden. It seems that a previous owner had several chicken sheds in that area, and it looks as if they left the concrete bases behind. I hate concrete, smothering the earth beneath. When people do it to their front gardens to make parking spaces I want to weep. Nick was pretty confident that the new tree will be fine where it is despite the obstacle 18 inches beneath. I'm happy with its position now too. I'm plotting a third tree. If only it could be an acer or a robinia, but my garden is just too exposed to the north winds.

Handiman Joe, he who painted the Woodbridge flat, is coming to blacken my garage next week. We used the wrong stuff on it last time, an acrylic paint which is now peeling badly. Ronseal wood treatment, Tudor Black, is what I should have used. Joe will get the old stuff off and make a good job of it. Then I can keep it topped up when the hot sun bakes it off again. Just like that.