Walking down the road to do some shopping, I discovered a team of council contractors bent on horticultural murder in the grounds of our 14th century church.  What hadn’t been ripped from the ground had been brutally hacked back. I have a horrible feeling that what was previously a shrubbery of hydrangeas and fuchsias will be replaced by supermarket-style low-maintenance planting. Thank goodness the lovely rose that I have previously taken cuttings from has survived, after a fashion.  I shall take my secateurs down there and right the wrongs that have been done to it.  This type of massacre is happening throughout the country as skilled gardening teams are made redundant and replaced by contractors whose main aim is to do the job as quickly as possible.

The peas I planted in a gutter some weeks ago have finally emerged and the broad beans I sowed in Roottrainers are also stirring. The sweet peas are begging me to plant them outside, but I need to prepare their bed first.

Thank goodness I had arranged a day’s help in the garden from Kevin, an amiable Scouser, who I can call on when heavy work needs doing.  Last week’s log delivery was still sitting on the path, admittedly looking remarkably like an Andy Goldsworthy sculpture, but nonetheless, in urgent need of transport to the log store. He had nearly finished and was looking forward to a little light horticulture, when a delivery of a tonne bag of organic multipurpose compost arrived  on a lorry without a crane.  The only place it could go was on the driveway in front of the car - which was needed first thing the next morning. So I gathered up every bag I could find and Kevin shovelled and between the two of us we managed to empty the bulk bag sufficiently to heave it out of the way and liberate the car.  Remarkably, Kevin was back the next day to move all the potting compost to its final destination. What a trouper!

March is definitely hovering between lion and lamb at the moment; there’s no shortage of sunshine, but after a couple of days of real warmth which filled the sheltered area around the front door with the scent of daphne, witchhazel and iris reticulata, we are back in the deep freeze with a bitter north easterly wind.  I have to stick my nose right into the flowers to pick up any hint of fragrance.

Just at the right time of year Haxnicks is offering good savings on Roottrainers,  the perfect  growing system for deep-rooted plants like broad beans and runner beans. Visit www.haxnicks.co.uk