Whether you are a garden person or not, June is generally a splendid month - it’s warm and it’s green and the days are long and seductive.

I’d actually like two ‘Junes’ - one for work and one for play, because for me, it’s quite a frustrating month as there’s so much to do. All my gardens are brimming over with plants that are shouting at me for attention - now!

Spring flowering shrubs that need pruning and perennials that need staking (yes, I know that should have been done weeks ago, but there’s always one clump that get forgotten!). There are well fed lawns that need more than regular mowing and of course the weeds that keep on appearing and reappearing - such as the wayward willow herb poking it’s head up through the rosemary bush and tangles of goosegrass that definitely weren’t visible a few days earlier.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all this - it’s happy and fulfilling work and I also love being in my own garden (above). But it’s a double edged sword as I am missing out on visiting other gardens. It’s the same every year - if I’m not gardening then I’m designing and if it’s neither then I am too tired to go anywhere!

And every year I say “I must make time…” And I must. I must do more than just read the posters that advertise a whole village full of open gardens - £3.50 plus cream teas at The Vicarage. (So English)

So maybe this weekend I will don my hat and sandals, lock up the secateurs, cover up the drawing board and actually go and visit some of these gardens.

Maybe.

Or maybe it’ll rain.