So the day is here - my annual garden Open Day for my garden design students. This is the day when you have to practise what you preach!! Have I overdone the focal points? Is there a sense of simplicity and unity? Is that foliage combination going to work? Will they feel that there is 'genius locii' at work?

I can only wait and see. The weather has not been that great - a good warm spell in May but then cooler and less sunny and that has meant quite a lot of flowers have been delayed this year. As I open my garden on the same weekend each year, it can be easily seen what seasonal differences there are from year to year and this year, flowers are late - Agapanthus still in bud and yet they were in full flower last year.

It was damp and windy yesterday which was not too good for tidying the garden up but it is drying out at present (09.15) but still a bit windy - the sun is out and the sky is getting bluer and I hope the wind will soon drop so that we have a perfect 'garden visiting' afternoon.

All is ready - plenty of tea, coffee, fruit juice and biscuits in the cupboards.

Let mayhem commence!!