Garden activity

A drizzly weekend was the perfect time to get out in the garden - the rain means all is quiet on the estate. Not that much to do - we covered our beds with plastic in an attempt to warm up the clay soil a little quicker, and planted a row of garlic in a raised pile of compost to try and stop it from rotting in the wet mud. It's a bit late to plant garlic really, but it should be OK.

It's not pretty, but our soil needs all the help it can get

Garlic - tucked up inside a nice pile of compost

I also cut a chunk off the roots of some of my favourite plants in the world - Persicaria Amplexicaulis 'Firetail' to give to a friend. My mum inherited it from my grandpa's garden, and has grown it in her gardens ever since. She passed it down to me a couple of years ago. I've given it to at least two others - it's so simple to give away - you just take a spade and chop off chunk of root around this time of year. As long as you get a bit with some of the tiny new leaves on, it should grow up big and strong. Once it's settled, it will take almost any kind of punishment you throw at it. In our garden it grows in heavy clay, as well as dry semi-shade that's pretty much waterlogged in the winter. It rewards you and any insects in the garden, with flowers from midsummer all the way through to the first frosts. I like it so much, in our small garden we've still found room for three.

One of our Persicarias now - just poking through

And this is what it looks like in August - it's the plant with tiny red flower spires on the left