What a month. For a start I moved house and that brought quantities of trauma. I was sad to leave my wonderful garden, which was perfect in every way with the most wonderful deep topsoil. But I was slightly bored with it, as there was no room for improvement. I surprised myself by not digging up any plants to take with me. Some of them were quite rare, but when it came down to it I just could not be bothered, and besides which, it was the garden which helped me to sell the property in the first place. I had quantities of good stuff in old terracotta pots and troughs, which naturally made the journey to the new house (barn really) and I am quite satisfied.

At work I am more busy than ever as I have thousands to bulbs to plant and this is the only gardening activity which is guaranteed to give me the twingeing screws in my back. I can hardly stagger and feel like an old man. The only thing to do in these situations is to plod on slowly and get them in the soil because no one else is going to do the job for me. As the garden was stripped of soil which was eventually replaced with fresh, all the old plantings of bulbs have been swept away and anyway, there are so many more gardened areas which need planting up, it is just like moving into a brand new house with a virgin garden. Of course I have enjoyed devising the planting schemes, which I hope will be a success, as I don't want to spend my declining years planting bulbs. I have been known to spend Christmas Eve shoving the last few into the ground and I never looked to see if they came up the spring.

The builders will be all gone in two weeks. I have given up fiddling and tiddling the house borders as they are still dancing all over them on a daily basis. When I am absolutely sure they have departed I will go through the whole lot and make good all the damage and then, mulch the lot with my wonderful rotted sheep poo mulch, which is produced locally and which I swear by. I still have a huge quantity of large evergreens to plant plus one hundred and fifty seven foot tall hollies to make a hedge. The herb garden needs box-edging and planting, the rope walk cutting garden needs rope and planting up, the knot garden is still only on paper, the baking hot walls of the south terrace need planting with exotics, and the orchard needs planting. There is more but I am going into denial and need to lie down.

Meanwhile, Daisy the Jack Russell has excelled herself by suddenly developing into a ratter. I was staggered and amazed when she walked by with a rat in her jaw and even more amazed when I caught her digging and catching another a few days later. I knew she was good with baby bunnies but they have no sharp teeth or are cunning. She has shot up in my estimation..............what a star.