I do like watching garden programmes on telly. They have changed drastically over the years and none so much as the current Your Garden Made Perfect which utilises the magic of 3D trickery to show how large sums of money can make the garden of the future. Tonight’s budget was 60,000 pounds! Blimey! You could buy a new house for that in some parts of the country. Having lived in St Albans where that one is, I have an idea of the budgets being spent and that doesn’t buy a car parking space.

However there is no way I could live somewhere for twenty years, hating my garden. I make changes all the time! Lots wanting done, and a small fraction of that budget, I would love to have spaces my girls can call their own but fundamentally they are not so interested now as me. I need to make their areas more discrete in the space we have and incorporate different spaces around the new shed. Currently I need to make a list of the things we could or should do, versus the things that are ultimately not happening.

A smaller garden in central London hadn’t been used for six years. The couple had put up blinds to hide it! The couple had two small children who had never been in their outside space. Our garden needs tidying but I’d never have considered closing off the rough bits.

A gigantic pond would be nice and might address the flooding problems our garden has had but if we do that it would take me getting some paid work, more regular than exams. Have vaccine, will look harder!