I don't know how we have done it but we are less than 4 weeks away from opening my garden to the public and we have fairly accurately recreated the Battle of the Somme in it . All well and good for any historians who come to my open day but not so interesting for the gardeners.

Its a long story really but when we built on a conservatory we lost our patio. I have some paving left over from my Show garden at West Woodhay house last year so thought we could put it to good use and enjoy some alfresco dining. So far so good.

We lifted the turf and levelled the area, uncovering the soakaway we put in when we built the extension- at which point my husband said " I've had an idea " ( I dread those words) His idea was actually very good- don't tell him i said so- we will have a rainwater tank  in the soak away hole. We had a tank in France which we brought back ( one sentence makes it sound so easy!) and it went into the hole ( finally) this evening.

Its a race against time to get the hard landscaping down and some plants in with enough time to let them settle in a bit.

Watch this space for developments and lets hope he doesn't have any more ideas!