For the last few years the kerria has overtaken my long shady bed. In spring it looks wonderful and it blocks next door’s conservatory but by mid summer it has always grown too tall so the yellow pom-pom flowers are on stems 10-12ft tall. From a single stem it has spread the length and, more crucially, the width of the bed. Nothing else really grows here apart from some Welsh poppies and an aquilegia, which wasn’t very happy this year. The neighbours have ‘done’ their garden and we need a proper screen above the wall between us. When asked, I tend to say that flowers are the priority in my garden, followed by places to sit but, if I’m honest the order is privacy, seating, flowers.

On two sides ivy, kept reasonably under control, provides the garden with a beautiful green screen above the walls. Some years, when I’m organised, sweet peas, morning glory or cucumbers grow up the front.  The plan for the gap above the remaining stretch wall is ivy (kept very under control) with a rose in front which will the arch over the summer house roof, meeting the one that is already there on the other side.

The bed is not deep; about a foot down it turns into impenetrable rubble, so large plants go into bottomless flower pots to give them a bit of extra soil. I picked out every single piece of kerria root, leaving just a thin row of stems at the back of one end of the bed. Some of these stems probably won’t survive as I’m sure I will have damaged their roots but I’ve left enough, and the plant is tough, so I hope I’ll retain a slim, wafty screen.

The list of requirements for the rose is rather alarming: shade tolerant, soil tolerant, climbing but not too rampant, repeat flowering, fragrant, ideally not pink (the other one which arches over the summer house is a mixture of pink and yellow). David Austin’s ‘Claire Austin’ does all these and, by good luck rather than good management, the flowers are exactly the same shade of cream as the edgings on the ivy leaves.

I’ve replanted the aquilegias, alchemilla and a rather sorry-looking hardy geranium I found lurking between a mass of kerria stems. None of them looked particularly happy but with watering, food and a layer of mulch they have all recovered.

I have a very small shed, roughly the shape of a sentry box. The theory is that all my gardening paraphernalia lives in it, thus ensuring that the summer house does not become a dumping ground. Slowly, over the last three or so years, the roof of the little shed has disintegrated. I botched a repair with a couple of bin bags weighted down with old hoses. It worked but was not very sightly and clearly wouldn’t last for ever. Thanks to my friend David it now has a new roof which is waterproof and attractive. The photos show the spectacular difference between before and after.

Jane