My garden is really beginning to fill out, it’s hard to believe that just over two years ago there was nothing here but grass and one wee apple tree. The hardest thing has been cutting away the turf but it’s worth it to get the planting space.

If all goes to plan that fence will be entirely hidden by plants of various sorts. The lupins you can see all came from a £1.50 packet of seeds, I got about 30 plants out of it – or more and ended up giving some away. I’m so glad I grew my own as the garden centres charge about £8 for one plant and they flower within a couple of months of germination. We’ve had strong winds over the last few days though and it has flattened some of the lupins, I must get some metal rods to bend into shape to use as plant supports for next year.

Above you can see that foxgloves have planted themselves around the acer. I’m really not ruthless enough where plants are concerned, I should have weeded them out but they seem so happy there.

The plant above is …. wait for it – edelweiss. I know, it’s not the sort of flower that you would think a song would be written about. Most of it is quite grey looking, but maybe if you are stuck in a long hard alpine winter then it looks wonderful – a harbinger of spring perhaps.

I have quite a lot of houseleeks/sempervivums in various parts of the garden but I asked Jack to drill a hole in this old fondue pot and put some plants in it, they seem to be doing well.

It’s turning out to be a good garden for roses and this one below is one of my favourites. I still haven’t found its plant label so I have no idea what it’s called. Its buds are red then it changes to lots of different colours orange, peach and pink as it matures, ending up a pale yellow. It’s a beauty whatever it is.

I’m taking notes of the things that I’ll have to do in the garden when the autumn comes, such as which plants will need to be moved then because they’re getting congested already. If I don’t take notes I’ll forget!