Even as I write we are still waiting for some rain to fall on the gardens. There has hardly been a drop since June. Almost every other county has had some relief but here we have been singled out for drought. I have given up trying to water all the spring plantings which have struggled throughout the season to survive I am just hoping that the leaf fall and cooler weather will bring it's own relief to the plants. All our mature beeches lost their leaves in late September and the acers had excellent autumn colour but the leaves soon shrivelled up and blew away. Lets make no mistake, it has been a wonderful summer and autumn and I have really enjoyed being outside but the dust has been smothering me, the plants, the builders, Daisy and all vehicles so that we might just have well been in the Outback in Australia. Even mature pines and yews and laurels are grey with dust and are longing for a shower. Because we are still a building site, with no proper roads, the tracks are three to four inches thick and when the rain does come we shall be ankle deep in slime and goo.

The formal fountain pond was ready for planting up with aquatic plants (they said) and so could I do the job by next Thursday (they said) so that the water could be turned on. I bought three thousand pounds worth of plants one thousand pounds worth of special compost and did the job. I watered everything in and the sub soil sunk and so did the plants so I dug them all up again and re planted. The pond was filled with water and then they realised that the water would be too far below the rim of the pond and so the water level would have to be raised by another foot. This meant that all the plants I had purchased would drown, as they would now be planted too deep. 'No problem' (said I)' I will move these plants to the
other water gardens which are nearly ready for filling and buy more for the fountain pond'. This I did and as I watered the new plants in lots of plaster rendering fell off the walls of the planting beds, 'Your fault' (they said) 'for using too much water'. Now the
walls are re plastered but there is no water to fill the fountain pond up because of drought and the fact that the other water garden has been filled up and is leaking so badly that it is taking all the reservoir's capacity to keep it full. 'Once the clay lining starts to swell, the leaks will stop' (they say)' we should have had concrete' (say I)........'I don't like water anyway' (says Daisy).

I had one of the shocks of my life this morning when I arrived at the lodge on the estate for there had been a stonker of a frost and everything tender had been blackened. I had not taken a single cutting or lifted a single plant till then because the weather had been so sunny and mild. I rushed to the other gardens up the hill and they were all fine, no frost at all. Needless to say, I have spent all day taking cuttings from these gardens and removing all the corpses from the lodge. Most of the plants I value I have cut back and potted up. I like to keep the summer plantings going until after the first shoot which is this weekend. No prizes for guessing next week's seasonal task.

I am still waiting for my autumn bulb delivery. I know I ordered late this year but the month has nearly gone and I have lots to do especially as all the containers will be empty this time next week. I did say some time ago that I would not attempt to plant anything in the ground until a good deal of rain had fallen; well it hasn't, so I shan't, even if I could. 'Quite right' (says Daisy).