After a massive effort to get it into some semblance of order last summer, my London garden is again, a mess. I have violets where the lawn was, daffodils where the potatoes should have been and so much pruning to do that I'm thinking of hiring a skip to put it in.

I've decided that as the tit nest and pigeon platform (can't dignify such a ramshackle construction with the name 'nest') have remained unoccupied for a year now, the buddleia is to come down to a mere 4ft tall. This means chopping down the extra 8ft of it. I also need to trim the firethorn (pyrocantha) back to the fence, hack out a dead dogwood and see about spreading the bag of horsepoo that never made it into a bean patch last summer, because the slugs ate all 24 of my bean seedlings in one night. Bastard slugs.

Then there's talking with the neighbour to help replace the back fence. They're a lovely couple and willing to help us, but strictly speaking, it is our responsibility.

There are odd daffodil spikes here and there, a rose that hasn't been without a bloom since May last year - and also needs pruning before it takes over the world - ivy that's feeding a rather fine blackbird at the moment and a pittisporum tree that could do with some attention. It was supposed to be a small shrub, but now it's a small tree.

Ho hum... a weeks work there is, but I don't have a week to spare!

LTS