Tell us about your garden in 100 words or less:
“South-facing, about 100 ft and longer than it is wide. A large hedge separates the garden from a mini orchard that I’ve put in. I’ve got some mature shrubs including a lovely Nandina domestica (heavenly bamboo) and a couple of unidentifiable trees. I’m playing with different borders – cottage, jewel and woodland – and trying to tie them together. I have brilliant dahlias and grasses for great late-summer displays. Lots of roses, peonies and lilies also have their place and I have a bit of a problem with ever-spreading Achillea ptarmica. I’m hoping some large Salvia guarantica ‘black and blue’ will survive to complement my Thalictrums too.”

Favourite plant in your garden?
“It’s a shrub rose, ‘Joan Beales’: an open double with a great scent and a lovely deep velvety red.”

What’s been your biggest garden mistake?
“Being too keen to plant bulbs then slicing into them when adding plants above.”

What is your favourite garden or show to visit and why?
“I like looking around Beth Chatto’s: it’s local with interesting ideas that should work for my own garden. They have a great, reasonably priced nursery too. I prefer the Hampton Court Flower Show to Chelsea – the displays are just as good but there’s more room to look around. I really want to get to Sissinghurst to see what all the fuss is about.”

Whose advice would you follow most?
“Definitely Monty Don and the BBC’s Gardeners’ World. I’m very jealous of Longmeadow, although there’s no way I could keep up with it on my own. Because of Longmeadow’s size, each week there seems to be something on the programme that I can do in my own garden.”

My cottage border in June

If you could grow only one, which would you choose: flowers, fruit or veg?
Flowers. I like the challenge of fruit and vegetables but I’m afraid I don’t do enough cooking to make full use of them. I like growing flowers from seed and use some of my allotment to grow them on until they’re ready to go into the garden.