The difficulty lies in remembering what you said last summer you were going to do this spring. I was going to shift some day-lilies, but have forgotten where I thought they ought to go. The ones I like most have bluish leaves and very bright lime flowers, without the dark eye.Unfortunately, they hate being moved and they sulk for ages if you try. I find it best to cut down most of the tall stems and wait for new growth to sprout from the bottom. The spurges self-seed, too, and there is an extraordinary measure of variation in the seedlings' foliage and flowers. The equally bright T eichleri has more staying power and has good foliage of a very pale, glaucous grey.

Next autumn, I'm going to plant masses more of them close to the spurges.The big spurges, such as Euphorbia characias, usually peak in late spring but have brought forward their act this year and are flowering with the purple-pink magnolia 'Leonard Messel' They have blue brunnera as a companion. I like the brilliant red of the tulip with the acid green of the spurge. The milkman scarcely dares come any more, but it keeps the path more or less open to traffic.'Cantata', my tulips of the year two seasons ago, were planted out when they had finished their spectacular display, close to a young plant of Euphorbia characias wulfenii. The euphorbia has now reached its zenith, but unfortunately the tulips have dwindled.

I dig up seedlings in trowelfuls - polyanthus, double daisies, verbascums, foxgloves, verbena, lychnis, polemonium - and press them on anyone who calls. It slightly defeats the purpose of the path, of course, to have it covered with plants, but it seems churlish not to acknowledge the bounty. This is evidently an ideal medium for self-seeding as there are far more seedlings here, where there is no competition, than ever appear on the bank itself. The paths up the bank are dressed each year with crushed bark. Out on what we unimaginatively call The Bank, a semicircular sweep of sloping ground around the south and west of the house, Barnhaven 'Muted Victorians' and 'Striped Victorians' are flowering fit to bust, in weird shades of dirty pink and blue.