Weeding is a reality – but it is satisfying when you get all of the intruders out and look at your tidy bed, with each plant in its intended place fulfilling its intended role before the little blighters return. I also love to tidy – to wander through the beds armed only with snips and pruning shears, inspecting each plant intimately, learning about it, snipping off the spent flowers and removing any wilting foliage. This is when I really enjoy plants as individuals, rather than as part of some huge composite picture, so it is a learning experience for me as well as a pleasure.

Many of my roses bloom all summer and so I snip them lavishly and dry the petals to use in potpourri – as well as any other blossoms or leaves that can contribute their fragrance to my indoor enjoyment. Sweet woodruff, for instance, smells like vanilla when it dries, even though it has no discernable fragrance when growing in the ground. And lemon balm – a dreadful pest in the garden, is a real treat in potpourri – or in cooking. So Summer is a time when my snips and I gather parts of the dinner – some garlic chives, a handful of nasturtium blossoms to toss in the salad, spikes of lavender to dry and slip between freshly laundered sheets and into the winter sweater drawers to help deter moths. It's time to enjoy the bounty – not to become enslaved. An essential part of the joy of gardening is love – so I love what I plant and the rest of the work becomes a joy. And that's how we need to keep it.