We are heading out to the garden on Friday after a brief week away. And I have become engrossed in all things vineyardesque here in London. Have even gone so far as to order all sorts of books on the subj at the Abebooks website. Oh evil tempting place. One quick click and the books are ordered and heading to your letterbox. One of the first tasks to do when we get there is to prune off the excess lengths of vine. And here is a picture of the vineyard at Knightshayes kitchen garden to inspire me. One day this too will be yours. With the ubiquitous rhubarb pots between the rows naturally.

And as it is a dreadfully wet afternoon here, time to have a rummage about the folders to check and see if any pictures have been ignored. I noticed this one. Can’t remember when I did the major pruning of the box bush (sorry, sculpture) next to our front door. But I do recall that it took two wheelbarrow loads of cuttings to make it tidy again.

The roses in the courtyard smell gorgeous. A bit bubblegum pink, but I will tolerate them if they keep up their wafty scents.

And one other job I have this month is to build up the area for another euphorbia plant in the front of the herb garden. The ones that were planted in the winter are settling in well. And look almost crowded. Now that’s a surprise.

The white garden in the east side of the house is also hopefully going to get the treatment. (I love the plans one has, it may not happen but the list is lengthening.) The tulips and narcissus did well, but it looks like a weed heap after the flowering is over.

I planted some sweet peas and some nasturtiums, but neither is worth a picture. Perhaps I should plant a clematis and have it scramble up the trunk. Or just go for another daphne and give it some more shade.

More pictures (and they are spookily alphabetical): the alliums look lovely even after they have flowered. And here is the poor apple tree in the lawn. Daisy the deer rather took to its young bark. So I now have it protected by good old chicken wire. It did lose most of its leaves, but hope it will thrive.

Two different types of flowers for the house. The coriander did as coriander does and bolted. So I cut it and added to the floral displays in the house with the lilies. And the other statuesque display was courtesy of roadside weeds. Valerian. Apparently it is rather invasive. Well I say, invade anyday.

Other ‘pretties’ that we inherited were the ghastly other rose in the courtyard. It was rather festooned with vetch last month. But now it has had its haircut and shows some promise. I think we should just hide it with a mighty ball of box.

With the sun shining on it I find it rather coral in hue. The sort of orange-red that would be the colour of choice of lipstick on a 1950s Hollywood starlet. But one mustn’t grumble. It’s not as if it’s the vile yellow of our triffids all over the rest of the farm. I spotted these ones hiding in the terrace below the pool.

Photogenic. But you need your sunnies to look at them.

And to finish: an action shot of the broad bean harvest. And hopefully a before picture of the lilies in the lower potager. If all goes well and Daisy hasn’t eaten them, they may be out by the time we get there this weekend. Fingers crossed.

The weather forecasters were promising a change in the weather, and around 5am the big storm arrived. Dramatic light and thunder show for an hour an a half, and now all is calm. I’m writing having a cup of tea and dreading going out and seeing if there is any netting left. Last night I worked on it until bad light stopped play. Jean-Daniel our neighbour was busy doing similar garden things. He was mowing all the edges with his monster and rather prehistoric looking lawm mower. Things do look much tidier.

Rain is so welcome. At times it came down in stair rods a lovely expression which Nicolas told me in French and which I have promptly forgotten. Must ask him again what the word was next week when I am back. (He was delivering sand for the last bit of wall; and I inveigled him into helping with the pallets up to the potting shed and moving the old benches down to Bernard’s.)

This last bit of wall is more like the Great Wall of China. But we are so close to finishing it. I can’t wait to not have a cement mixer getting in the way of all my panoramic pool and lawn shots.

Mind you the weather was wet for just a day. All back to perfectly hot and sunny again for the foreseeable future. But at least the lawn and the flower seedlings are getting a good drink. I even had to save some of my new stipa seedlings. They were sown two weeks ago, left in the shed and sprouted beautifully. But I managed to sow sowed them into a pot without drainage holes and they were all manfully doing breaststroke in their potting mix, trying to keep heads above the rising tide of rain.

Back to the house I just sat in the courtyard under cover watching the rain and having a good look at the courtyard. It’s something I never do. Rarely make time to just sit and look. Luckily the vines up here don’t need much work. Just get pushed up into their supports. And I have even formulated some ideas about where to grow things; going so far as to make a rough sketch on paper. There are some lovely grasses just above the courtyard, so it makes sense to add a few more to the mix. But then the time was up and it was head in the rain down the hill and back to London.

I should have written my notes up on the train. But I spent the entire time staring out the window looking at other people’s vineyards and marvelling at how neat and utterly weed free the rows seem to be. Vine envy.

First words spoken this morning as I took my cup of early tea out to the newly installed fenced in potager. Oh shit. Actually it was a bit stronger than that, but this is a family show and we can’t have you sputtering over your screens.

Not a single salad leaf has been left. And every one of the Swiss chard plants has been cropped to the ground. Fence torn in three places. Ripped to bits. Daisy is probably wearing half of the netting as an exotic turban. She must have been an angry deer when she found her way blocked after such a feast because that fencing takes a bit to rip.

Am I angry too? Cross. Resigned. I love Swiss chard. I grew it from seed. What will we do for lovely stir fries now?

Too busy to repair the fence right now. And besides. What’s the point. I suppose she is just going to tear it down again tonight. Wish I had a web cam to watch her doing the damage. Pesky pesky deer.

Harvested 10kg of potatoes just to cheer up as well as more beans and peas and then set about putting all the lily pots in the shade under the wisteria. No point having the deer develop a taste for lily buds while I’m away.

Decided that the only safe place for all my juicy onions was up on a few pallets on the first floor of the gite. They may get mauled by rodents, but surely it’s more secure than just leaving them out in the barn?

Potted up lime basil and other small seedlings in the potting shed. So dispirited I didn’t even write down the names and numbers of what I potted on. I just assume now that Daisy and her friends will find the little unfenced flower garden on one of their nightly perambulations and eat their way through the lot.

Drove over to St Michel this afternoon to slosh a lot of water over the flowers I planted up at the Protestant church. To my delight (and relief) they are doing rather well. Even the verbena is flowering it’s leaves off.

Last job I was putting off: I decided to mend the fence, and added an extra bit of netting over the peppers. Not sure what they will turn to tonight now that they have eaten every single Swiss chard plant and all the lettuce.

Well at first light with a cup of tea in hand it seems there was no deer stuck in the netting, and from a brief glimpse, no ravaged garden.

But no. A closer look and I discover that our fastidious Daisy Deer has a penchant for the beetroot tops as well as the young chard and the lettuce. She has worked her way along the same row that she half ate last night. And yanked off the beetroot tops and left them half destroyed. So the solution is netting and it has to be today.

Luckily Gamm Vert (our local garden centre) had enough netting and other toys for me to complete the hot work. It took hours. And even though late in the day managed to get sunburned on my legs and feet, but I have an enclosure. Rather spiffing really. But I do wonder if it will keep the deer out. Tomorrow will tell.

Had first go of the lawn mower today as well. Can’t believe I almost forgot to mention it. What fun. Well it wouldn’t be fun if you were thinking – hmm another laborious task. But it is so quick compared to the strimmer, and brings out the boy racer in one as it flies off down the paths.