Running out of space is a chronic complaint in even the largest of gardens, and I have decided to apply William Morris’s house rules, with a twist to my garden: have nothing in your garden that you don’t know to be useful or think beautiful.

The pond’s health check is complete, the temperature is still over 18C, perfect for Piscean as well as human swimming, and Paul Featherstone gave me a rundown of the great variety of phyto- and zooplankton he’d found in the water samples he took.

What happened to the June we used to know and hate? The month of fog, tattie blight-inducing sea mist, rain, drizzle, grey skies, chilly winds and unseasonal temperatures, low enough to make all the leeks and kohlrabi bolt?

It’s been boiling here of late.

The pond is in full recovery now.

Just two more days to go until the official start to summer and with it the gradual shortening of daylight hours.

Pity the poor English gardeners.

By the time you read this I’ll be back in Shetland after a week in the south of England. So for all I know there might have been a seven-day scor­cher or snow, sleet, hail and howling gales to ruin all our gardens during my absence.

What I do know is that the down­pour on…

Do you remember your first love? Most of us do. Some have married their childhood sweethearts, while others had to kiss a lot of frogs before they found their prince or princess. There’s first love and first love, a register ranging from a crush on a favourite teacher to the first person to make a…

That south-westerly gale two weeks ago is still a major topic among Shetland’s gardeners.

Tales of woe abound: whole beds of tulips in their prime wiped out in a few hours, bedding plants set out the night before turned to crisps.

It is heart-breaking when this happens – every five years or so, if my…

Now and again, when I have a spare moment, I go through the Lea Gardens chore list, ticking off items that have been accomplished, and circling those still to be done with a red pen.

“Lift Gunnera manicata early spring and line planting pit with thick polythene” received a red circle well over a month…