It’s been another glorious day. The forecast rain hasn’t reached this far south-east and it’s definitely a little warmer. This morning’s dog walk with friends was via the lighthouse down to the beach. The lady who runs the cafe was opening up, so we stopped for a coffee and enjoyed 30 minutes in the sunshine listening to the waves on the pebbles, feeling positively lucky and agreeing there wasn’t anywhere we’d rather be (before remembering it was Thursday and we all had jobs to do…). You have to grab these moments while you can.

Of course, all this sunlight and warming up means that the garden is going bonkers. As well as the plants we do want, Japanese anenomes are popping up through paving cracks, ivy is creeping and brambles are scrambling. It’s a constant battle to keep the invaders at bay (and one we’re losing in places).

The seeds I’ve ordered should arrive soon – tomatoes ‘Gardener’s Delight’ and ‘Sungold’ for the greenhouse, French bean ‘Cobra’ which has pretty pink flowers for the veg patch and some perennials (including Echinacea purpurea and a Rudbeckia) to be planted with ornamental grasses in prairie-style drifts on one of the terraces in the front garden. We’ll need a lot of plants to make it work so growing from seed is the best option. This idea is inspired by the Piet Oudolf borders at RHS Wisley which were planted in 2001, the year our middle son was born; we had many happy visits there when the children were small. If we get our skates on, the terrace should be looking respectable for the Garden Safari at the end of June.