Emma Cooper

The crimson flowered broad beans are one of the garden highlights this month

There’s so much to do in the garden at the moment that I can see why people give up in despair. Every time I go out there I work solidly for at least an hour, do good work and then come back in with a To Do list as least as long, if not longer.

In some ways, it’s just bad planning on my part. I should have dug out the compost heaps and sorted out the wormeries earlier in the year, but I didn’t have the energy. I could have dealt with some of the weed problems then, too, it would have been easier.

In other ways, it’s just the way things are. I wanted a garden chock full of plants this year, and that’s what I’ve got – but they all need planting out or potting up, watering and weeding and feeding. Some of the new arrivals are perennials, and will be less work (or, more specifically, less work at this time of year) in future years, but an annual vegetable patch is always time consuming.

I don’t mind. I love being outside with the plants and even though I can’t get everything done at once I am making progress.

On Friday I was potting up luffa and watermelon seedlings. They are getting used to life in the Grow Dome, and then I will plant them out in there. I spent an hour doing that, and then later in the day Pete joined me to spend another hour potting up new arrivals from Rocket Gardens. I got some free ‘gardens’ from them this year (for attending a customer focus group) – a Salad Garden, a Herb Garden and a Windowbox Garden.

At some point over the Bank Holiday weekend I dug out one of the compost heaps and used most of the compost to remake the shallow Grow Dome bed, which will be home to at least one of the watermelons. It gets very dry, so I have lined it with black plastic and also covered it in black plastic as a mulch. I will plant the melon(s) through the plastic and hope that keeps them warm and damp.

Today I have planted out a few more things – parsley seedlings, 3 Friulana courgettes and 2 Alberello courgettes. I potted up some volunteer seedlings – wonderberries that self-seeded from last year’s plants. And I cleaned up a pile of cat poo, which unfortunately is a regular occurrence. It’s easier to smell than to see, but I have come to the conclusion that if I don’t find at least one pile of cat poo while I’m out in the garden then I’m just not looking hard enough!