We walk round the garden as we did in April starting at the coffee corner. The hydrangeas are in bloom. The bed is free of ivy and brambles. The area is covered in crab apples uneaten by the parakeets. I go up the ladder to pick delicious Victoria plums.

My next project is to get rid of brambles from the raspberry bed across the path from the hydrangea bed.

Bees love the the blue flowers. The green bramble leaves indicate the enemy.

I weed the lawn edge so the mower can cut the grass, taking care I do not harm the roses and geraniums.

A bramble challenges the rock rose and fabulous fuchsia plant we bought from County Galway, where my family comes from.

The tomatoes are ripening in the greenhouse, our tea house where we sit when it is raining. A single cucumber has arrived.

In every bed wild strawberries can be found. They do not have much taste but the pigeons adore them.

Our own strawberries have not been a success. I built an inner cage to stop the squirrels eating them, but the slugs got inside before the fruit was fully ripe.

The apples are ripening; head gardener Jannie tells me to pick them.

Jannie has cleared her flower bed of weeds, ivy and brambles leaving beautiful shrubs and solitary white margarites. I remove the huge butterfly bush from the corner of the bed between the concrete path and the lawn.

We landscape the bed to reduce weeding in the future with a path laid on pool lining with stepping stones in oriental style. A cherry tree and a pear tree will be planted in September. 25 mepeta and other plants will complete this masterpiece.

Early each morning I have been weeding the bed. My new friends, the bees, suck the pollen from the geraniums and ...

... the fuchsia. They are so close to me I can see their legs and eyes. Bees already go crazy on the mepeta.

Looking back as I reach Jade and Sean’s sitting area, I see the Japanese Acer, Jannie’s beautiful flower bed with the seats on the mound edged by rocks to view it, a bamboo hedge loved by the Chinese and the summerhouse where will sit beside the river in the winter. The olive tree, bought at the Eden Project, has been moved from its concrete tub to be near the river.

We continue to the pond where Japanese anemones obscure our view from the arbour of the Buddha under the waterfall falling from the rock mountain. Those on the right hide a huge rotting tree trunk. The toad house is vacant. The white climbing hydrangea and the rose are the backdrop to this idyllic scene.

I have move the Japanese anemones beside the pond so we can now see the Buddha but the weeds are returning.

I lay a pebble beach in Japanese style on top of pond liner. The Corfu swan now sits on a slab of siniotiki marble.

A damselfly sits on the anemone leaf above the pebble beach.

A Scarlet Tiger moth sits on a leaf in the backdrop.

Our own Comma butterfly with wings now frayed, says hello to the Buddha.

We continue along the azalea bed, which will bloom next April. Pink Japanese anemones join the more common white ones.

At the end of the azalea bed Crocosmia, are in bloom. They are the home of the damselflies. What has eaten Jannie’s petunia?

Jade enjoys a barbecue with her friends by the river.

Sean is in training now and races his coach at the end of 90 minutes Brazilian football skills work. He wins.

Jannie and I enjoy a well earned cup of tea in our arbour. And the hero is ...

... my friend Robbie who has followed me throughout my great weeding adventure.