For Mum’s recent Thanksgiving Service at Llangattock Church, I used a lot of foliage, viburnum, catkins and even camellias to fill large tubs at the entrances of the lych gate and the church. They were so popular that I have put some similar pots there permanently and will keep them filled with fresh foliage and colour throughout the year.

It’s something I have been doing for years for clients at Christmas and I’m thrilled that more people will benefit from the simple idea. Just replacing foliage every few weeks means that the tubs will always be seasonal and have colour each month. Whereas if you plant up with shrubs or plants you are restricted by the short flowering time – or the expense of replacing them.

The compost needs to be kept quite wet as it’s the only moisture that the cut foliage has, and strong winds sometimes mean that the contents are spread far and wide but that’s the only drawback. You do need a good source of foliage and flowers to cut (thank you to all my clients in advance) and some fleshy stems don’t respond well, but overall I think it could catch on!

Thank you to Aber-Gav-enny Garden Centre for generously providing the pots and compost for the Church. The garden centre has a great selection of everything at the moment, from pots to plants and seating to statuary. I was sorely tempted to give a metal pig and ornamental giraffe a good home. I loved the pretty pink furry buds of the decorative Pussy Willow called, ‘Mount Aso’ or ‘Red Cat’, which would look fabulous in the garden or a vase. The stunning little camellia ‘Beauty Blush’ will provide welcomed early colour in a client’s garden and I also bought a couple of Photinia serratifolia ‘Pink Crispy‘ which will eventually provide a nice, evergreen hedge with the added interest of the mottled leaves and new pink leaves.

And I had a lovely cup of coffee in Digby’s Café. I’m thrilled to see that lovely new café and it’s squishy sofas – it’ll be a great place to have some of the meetings I have to have and means I can do some plant shopping at the same time.

I also stocked up on seeds last week too. Every year I have a tatty batch of seed packets left that I never got around to sowing. Some of packets have even been faded in the sunlight and I literally don’t know what they are. But every year I mix them up in an old cup and sow them in a few large containers, and then just wait to see what I get. It’s more rewarding than it sounds. Last year I had sweet peas, radish, rocket, coriander and cornflowers in the same tub, which looked great and were deliciously ‘pickable’. I’ll let you know what I get this year.

I’m not sure that Adam Alexander would approve of his randomness - fondly known as The Seed Detective, I think he has a bit more ‘law(n) and order’ in his garden. Adam’s new book ‘The Accidental Seed Heroes’ is also an ‘orderly’ read. As well as an accomplished gardener and author, he is a real ‘story-teller’ which makes his books wonderfully informative but in a way that you just absorb and retain the information. I have enjoyed reading about the crops that will feed us in a changing world as Adam has interviewed chefs farmers, scientists and everyday growers around the world who are championing traditional varieties and breeding new ones to cope with our ever changing climate. More details on his website www.theseeddetective.co.uk