You could say gardening is like life, nothing is certain apart from the fact that there will be successes and failures.

This last week has been a bit this way. It is not so long ago that I wrote about a green shooted dogwood that has been superb for the last couple of years. I should have kept quiet. I thought it was suddenly not looking too healthy and the reason quickly became all too apparent, honey fungus. This terrible parasite has struck again. There is nothing that I can do, it was in the garden before I came and it will be here long after I have gone.

On the upside the garden has really blossomed this spring in all senses of the word. You would think that the cold winds and very wet weather would have discouraged blooms but no, some shrubs have flowered better than ever. My Pineapple Broom is the best it has been since I planted it, my Ceanothus is laden down and just a mass of blue. Last year I did a drastic pruning of my orange patio climbing rose and at the moment it is just stunning, absolutely covered in flowers and is like a beacon in the garden.

The weather has gone from cool to unseasonably hot almost overnight. My annuals I have grown from seed needed to be planted out but the weather was not good enough until now. After hardening off I have managed to plant up some containers and put a few in the ground. A fresh bag of compost was required and I went to a part of the garden where I store such things, not seen by anyone else. I must get round to sorting this mess out one day! To keep the bags dry I put empty compost bags over the top of the unopened ones. I removed the first bag to find a large and healthy looking frog looking up at me. He must have been feeding well on my slugs which I thanked him for. Anyone who stores compost will know that the slimy things seem to like the cool surface of the plastic bags. How often have I got hold of a bag and wondered whet was so cold in my hand. Yuck!

I sowed various salad crops in containers when the weather was chilly which seemed a bit optimistic. However with the sudden hot spell it proved to be a good decision. It really is a treat to be able to pick fresh salad leaves and put together a good mixture for a meal. No big carbon footprint for these vegetables.

A real bonus of the sudden hot spell is that my favourite rose has burst into bloom. Gertrude Jekyll may not be the rose with the neatest habit but for me it is my all time favourite for scent. The perfume from this rose is unmistakable and just fills the air. A rose I would never want to be without.

The downside of the wet weather followed by heat is the hedges have had to be cut a month earlier than usual. Last year I bought a Gtech HT06-Nicad Cordless Telescopic Hedge Trimmer and this has made life so much easier. I can now cut the hedges without having to get out the stepladders and I do not have to think about cutting through the electric cable. Oh yes I have, many times!

This year I have tried growing strawberries from seed and this week they have been transplanted into containers. Several flowers have appeared. Now that all remains to be done is getting the flowers to turn into fruit, ripen and eat them before the birds and mice!

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