The past few weeks all I’ve been hearing about are the hose pipe bans predicted for the summer months. This seems especially ironic when I'm I driving to work through the rain .... so I’m off to harness what’s being offered from the sky by installing a water butt in my garden.

Mindful of Ian Paul’s clever calculations on watering my petunias using bottled water I’d rather be spending my £40 now on a water butt, than £500 later on watering my flowers for just one hour!

We’ve all heard of Medwyn Williams for his prize vegetable seeds. The winner of 10 gold medals at the Chelsea flower show, this month he’s been presented with an MBE for his services to gardening.

This puts him within good company – other gardeners honoured by the Queen include Archie Skinner MBE (retired head gardener at Sheffield Park), Brian Duncan MBE (award-winning daffodil breeder), Roy Lancaster OBE (plantsman) and Alan Titchmarsh MBE (no identification required!) to name but a few. Don’t you think ‘Greenhouse Girl MBE' has a certain ring to it?

No, this doesn’t mean that I drive along the M1 with my car window down throwing out seeds or bulbs! What it means is that I’ve always got a gardening magazine in the car, so when I get stuck in a traffic jam that’s going nowhere I can pull on my handbrake, skim through my magazine and dream about being in the garden.

Working at Two Wests I’ve access to loads of gardening magazines, but I’m still tempted when I’m shopping to buy the latest edition. At the moment this is Gardens Monthly.

So, when the traffic ground to a holt this morning I settled down to some quick reading, rather than stressing about being late for work. Three things caught my eye (I have to be quick ‘cause the traffic does move every ten minutes or so):

“In the Garden: a Collection of Gardening Wisdom” - I love to read when the weather prevents me getting into the garden and this looks to be a real gem. In fact, interspersed throughout the magazine are quotes taken from the book. My favourite so far is

‘A good gardener always plants three seeds – one for the grubs, one for the weather, and one for himself’
C Collins

A full page advert from ‘Gripple’ promoting their Garden Trellis Kit. I first came across Gripple in 2003 (I think at Gardeners World Live) and we included their product in our 2004 catalogue. A really smart idea it let’s you install a very strong plant support into your garden to support all sorts of climbing plants. And you don’t need the strength of ten men to get the support wire really tight!

Finally I saw the Malvern Spring Gardening Show advertised. Even though I’m stuck in the traffic in the pouring rain this advert instantly reminded me of the hot day in May a couple of years ago when I drove down to Malvern. So I’m now going to book a day of work and buy my ticket for this years show ....

A Money Tree – a plant to relieve all my financial problems?

On Gardeners Question Time ealier this month (I'm a busy girl so late letting you know this 'little gem') Anne Swithenbank chose the Money Tree as her plant of the week ... and so would I if its claims are to be believed!

It’s said that by rubbing the leaves of this succulent plant all your financial problems will be sorted ... but if they aren’t you’ll still have a lovely house plant to admire.

If anyone has had any luck with this plant let me know .... and I'll be off to buy a truck load and retire early!

I’ve spent the day writing new text for the Two Wests catalogue and this has included all the new products we’re about to introduce.

One of these is the Bug Blaster, a neat little gadget which fits onto the end of a garden hose and let’s you ‘blast’ pests from your plants.

But what amused me was the manufacturers’ information which stated:

‘Does the Bug blaster hurt beneficial insects? No. Generally speaking beneficial insects tend to be larger and or hard shelled i.e. ladybirds, praying mantis etc’

Praying Mantis? Are they crazy? If I had praying mantis in my garden I’d need full body armour before I went in the garden! I guess I should think myself lucky I’ve only got a mouse living in the greenhouse……..it could be worse.

Let me know what’s the worse pest you’ve had to get rid off ……. I’ll be very impressed if it’s a lion, tiger or bear…*I’ve visions of Dorothy in full body armour being chased down the yellow brick road by a lion, tiger or bear (Oh my!)*

My first memory of working in the garden is when I was about 4 or 5 years old. My brother, sister and I each had a small 'garden' within our Granddad's allotment. Three little gardens, surrounded by a small stone wall. I don't remember what I grew - in fact I'm sure my Dad and Granddad probably made sure everything survived - but I do remember the competitiveness of wanting a better garden than my siblings. I progressed to having a greenhouse when I was about 7 years old. A lovely, old fashioned greenhouse - much like we have to pay thousands for today - a wooden greenhouse on top of a small brick wall. I used to fill it with different varieties of fuchsias and experiment with taking cuttings.

At the same time that I was nursing fuchsia cuttings, my brother started to grow sweetpeas and chrysanthemums for show. In my early teens our family visited virtually all the local flower shows throughout the summer and autumn months. The dedication of the show gardener knows no end - I remember late nights of plants being selected and early mornings (and I mean early, about 3.00am) when the flowers would be taken to the show ground and petals perfectly arranged.

There's then a huge gapping gap of no gardening - as I went off to university and then found gainful employment. It wasn't until about nine years ago when I started work at Two Wests that I began to return to gardening again. I filled the windows of my flat with troughs full of flowers and when I bought my first house I had the joy of transforming a builder’s site into my own little garden. Months were spent plotting what I would grow and where before putting the first plant in place. Six years later I'm faced with a garden overflowing with trees, shrubs and flowers! I've even managed to squeeze in a greenhouse so I can raise my annuals from seed and have tasty greenhouse grown tomatoes in late summer.

So now it's a case of maintaining my garden and making small changes to get the best from the space. As we all know, keeping a garden in tip top condition can be a full time job.... and as I've got a full time job, work in the garden has to be fitted in around my free time. Rather than being simply a chore, a necessity to keep the weeds under control, working in my garden is a joy - even though it can be hard work! This is why I think I'm a gardener. I'm not an expert gardener by any means but I'm like lots of other gardeners. I'm fulfilled when my cuttings take, when the first snowdrop appears in the garden and in the summer when I can sit out surrounded by the fragrance of fresh flowers. I'm learning all the time, everyone has advice when if comes to gardening whether it's from my friends, from watching a gardening programme on TV or reading a gardening magazine, every year brings new plants to try, new ways of growing and new tools to test.

“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”
The Daffodils, William Wordsworth (1804)

My living room is brightened by my first vase of daffodils ……. especially so as the weather still thinks it’s December!

If you’re interested in the daffodils which inspired William Wordsworth the ‘Petal Peek bulb watch’ has been set up by the Lake District National Park Authority.

The bulb watch special is the brainchild of Lake District National Park Authority online media adviser Helen Reynolds who wanted to share the area’s botanic bounty with a world-wide audience.
“With the quirky timing of spring across the country, I thought the website would be the ideal way of telling visitors what’s blossoming here in the Lake District,” said Helen.

Snowdrops, aconites, crocuses, narcissus, tulips and the all important daffodils will feature, leaving Wordsworth’s yellow prodigies besides the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing on the keys.

Helen was prompted into her floral foray after being asked by friends in London last week when daffodils were out.
“They were very surprised when I said late March, as they bloom much earlier in the south,” she said. “I also heard of a North Yorkshire photographer arriving a fortnight too early to capture our magical autumn colours and encountering a sea of green.”

If you want to check out the progress of the daffodils – like the 90,000 online in January visit Petal Peek

My greenhouse tidying was brought to an abrupt end when a mouse ran past my foot!

I hate, hate, hate mice - sorry if I’ve offended anyone who adores mice, but I can’t stand them. Even though everyone says ‘the mouse will be more afraid of you’ I don’t believe it. I’m big, the mouse is small, but the mouse is fast and I’m slow so if it turned on me I wouldn’t get away fast enough .... I couldn’t outrun a mouse!

Can you imagine the damage a mouse could do .... I’d probably loose a limb and when someone asked ‘How did you loose your leg?’ I’d have to say ‘A massive, monster of a mouse ate it for breakfast’ (sorry, my imagination has gone off on a tangent .... I’ll stop now).

Anyway, this has brought an end to tidying out the greenhouse until I either forget the mouse is there or get my courage back. And at my age, forgetting a mouse has moved into the greenhouse will probably happen in the next 48 hours. Then I’ll be safe to go back in the greenhouse ....