Hope all is well out there in retail land. Great to see the sun out this week, although this persistent cold can’t be good for hanging around in the garden, let alone the plant sales area. At least the sun and breeze will dry things out a bit all ready for all hell to break loose when the temperature finally lifts. We’ve had another busy week, but not as busy as we would like on the sales front, although sales are currently up on last year, which also got off to a slow start.

It’s funny how other people see our profession. I went to see my excellent dentist (have to say this, just in case she sees this and ‘extracts’ her revenge at a later date!) this week, and we got chatting (a bit one sided) about my work. She knew I ran a nursery and asked how I enjoyed being a gardener, saying how rewarding and stress free my life must be. I just wonder how she pictures my existence, wandering around with my secateurs and trug in hand, talking to the pretty flowers, when in reality I actually power-walk around, with a walkie-talkie in hand and talking, usually, to myself! I did try and explain that we are more of a plant factory than a glorified garden, but having a mouthful of tools and sucky tube and the ever present fear of choking and spluttering, made me even less coherent than usual. She did say she had several gardening clients and they all seemed very happy and contented which she thought was great and seemed quite envious. I didn’t dispel her image with a financial reality check, as it is nice to be recognised as being part of an enviable trade.

If anyone misses out on any of these weekly ramblings, they are now appearing on our www.hairypotplants.co.uk website blog (in a slightly edited form). Consequently anyone can get access including relatives, staff and dentists, so I may have to take a bit more care on the content! You will find from week to week some repetition of news, this is to cover the youngsters who have too many exciting texts to send to trawl through this thoroughly, the old folk who won’t remember that they have read it before and myself who struggles to remember my own name let alone what I wrote last week.

Weight loss and exercise programme going well, I may have found my waist, but I suspect it may just be a fold.

Nature notes

No frogspawn yet in any of our ponds but the birds are still chomping through kilos of feed and doing a lot of singing.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week.