If I was writing this in my garden diary, here’s what I’d have to say about today:

Weather: picture perfect, once the fog burnt off

Distractions: minimal (Lucas slept all morning and my lovely mother-in-law, Maureen, kept him entertained all afternoon… in between doing all our laundry, cleaning the bathroom, dusting the glassware and vaccuming the house. Grandparents are a godsend!)

Seedlings transplanted out of the trays in the mini plastic house on the deck: 52 purple podded Dutch peas and 24 ‘Dwarf Massey’ peas

Seedlings still in the plastic house: 4 trays of Russell lupins (I’m excited to report that they’ve just unfurled their first true leaves), 1 tray of beetroot, 1 tray of rocket and 1/2 tray of swedes (I sowed parsnips in the other half of the tray, but none have germinated)

Flower seedlings planted: 3 punnets of purple stock, 4 punnets of ‘Artist’s Glory’ Iceland poppies and 4 punnets of white annual chrysanthemums (I’m not entirely sure if these are frost tender, but I guess I’m about to find out)

Dahlias planted: two rows of pink varieties, including ‘Hamari Rose’, ‘Stolze of Berlin’, ‘Rose Jupiter’, ‘Sharon Anne’ and my favourite from our wedding, ‘Ruthie G’

Potatoes planted: 4 x 1.5kg bags of ‘Jersey Benne’ and 2 bags of  ‘Purple Heart’ (a variety bred in New Zealand that combines the violet skin and flesh of a Maori spud like ‘Urenika’ with the smooth skin and large size of a standard spud). I still have 4 bags of ‘Cliff’s Kidney’ and one of ‘Ilam Hardy’ left to plant. I should also have half a bag of ‘Agria’ to plant too, except the dog chewed them overnight

Anything else?: 1 punnet of broccoflowers, 1 punnet of ‘Savoy’ cabbages and a row of Elephant garlic (I saved 2 dozen giant cloves from my crop last year)

Verdict: a 10/10 sort of day, mostly because of my 10/10 husband, who dug all the holes and planting trenches for me, then lugged compost and seedraising mix in by the barrowload to fill up the trenches he’d just dug. If I hadn’t already married him, I’d marry him!