Our gardens are full of them! Some are worse than others… and some of you will sympathize and others will mention the benefits they bring, for the bees, for the hedgehogs etc. and I do feel torn but I’d like a garden full of life, where the things I like, and often struggle to grow, can flourish!

I love so many things that the slugs will feast on and feel sure that by only keeping some at bay, I am leaving others free to chomp! I need to build a pond! It is on the list. But only as the last time we had one we welcomed newts every year. A wildlife pond allows a bit of wild plant life too but I still have to protect the plants they find tasty.

NoMow May/June whenever has left my borders in a shambles! I will have to spend the hopefully hottest part of the year trying to reclaim areas currently under attack from couch grass bindweed and brambles! Argh!

But it’s a balance between pulling out things growing in the wrong places and yanking the dastardly things you don’t want to damage the things you’ve planted. And it’s constant in a garden of any size. When you take on a new garden you have all the favourites and nemeses of the previous owner/resident to contend with and negotiate with your family which ones you can eliminate (methods willing).

The seller of our current house definitely tried to cover over the flowers of his mother’s garden with turf but it was low Quality if even turf at all and has left us with a conundrum of whether to keep any of it or to dig most of it out. But I can’t see us managing to eliminate enough when I can only do little chunks at a time. I do need to befriend more local gardeners who only garden and don’t have family fundraisers to plan… who can HELP!