I'm totally exhausted these days, in all my years of  professional gardening I have never been so tired. There is so much to do and only me to do it. The damp, warm season here has made everything grow in a tropical fashion especially the new lawns which I guarantee are growing at the rate of one inch a day. There are acres of them and I am cutting them with a twenty one inch wide mower which needs emptying every fifty paces or so. It could have been quite different if there had been a  drought like last year and the grass would have germinated spasmodically and then withered and died hideously (then I would have been in trouble). A bit like the Forth Bridge, as soon as I have finished mowing I have to start all over again. I dare say that by September everything will have settled down but I may tell you that I have been in touch with my lawn contractor and ticked him off for spreading too much fertiliser and for sowing the seed too thickly.

All the imported top soil which now graces the gardens is alive with weed seed. This re-appears and germinates after the last batch has been hoed off and I expect this will be the story for the next two years until it is all exhausted. Life follows nature and I am both 'hoed off' and exhausted now and I long for the winter.

My new greenhouse is erected and nearly completed, it just needs the drains and stone floor to be laid. Unfortunately the builders have been sent elsewhere on the estate for a couple of weeks and so a frustrating time awaits for the gardener very keen to put his precious plants under glass away from the glinting teeth of all the hares, rabbits and deer which, have now designated  my temporary standing-out ground as a diner de-luxe for the neighbourhood. My new potting shed and office was showing great promise but all I have is an expanse of very level concrete to look at and admire at the moment. The gardener always comes second or third in the priority queue these days.

I have decided to curb the wanderings of Daisy, my jack russell since this week one of the cattle in an adjacent field was bitten by an adder and has been extremely poorly. It is known as Adder's Bank and now we know why. I don't think such a little dog would stand much chance of survival should she be bitten and I should never find her again in time. What a thought.

Talking of banks. We now have several new fangled banks of what will be grass, skirting the house and making fancy shapes in front of the huge windows. I was hoping to have these seeded but have come to realise that they had better all be turfed in order to guarantee success. Hopefully I won't have to begin cutting these until next spring if they are done in September but I am not looking forward to it How on earth am I going to be able to get sharp lines on these buttresses without using a pack of educated guinea pigs and a small rawhide whip. A mower won't touch them and a strimmer is too rough..............I need a giant razor, does such a thing exist?.

I have been wondering what to do with all the grass cuttings I produce, mountains of them. I have a newly planted slope, mainly trees and shrubs, which dries out very quickly. I now heap a ring of grass around each plant and water liberally in the centre. The water does not run away and the ground stays damp where it is important, so some clouds do have a silver lining.