Numerous studies now have suggested that regular gardening is good for the health.

Not only does the activity keep you fit, but the reward for toiling in the soil and caring for plants is, apparently, a significantly reduced stress level.

While I’m sure that gardening does have many benefits, it is those periods of not gardening because of bad weather or conflicting commitments that I’m concerned with.

Am I the only gardener who gets frustrated by the many obstacles that stand in the way of pursuing my favourite hobby?

Heavy rain at the weekend; deadlines that keep me stuck in front of the computer when it is dry and mild or finding myself standing in the supermarket queue when I’ve got a sack of tulip bulbs ready to be planted, can leave me fuming.

Maybe I need to learn the same level of patience and perspective shown by a gardener from Lancaster who I met recently when I was asked to write about her garden for one of the glossy magazines.

Over the last 14 years she has created a unique garden around her home. It has a woodland area that for part of the year is studded with many thousands of spring blooms and a walled garden that contains an intricate parterre, as well as a beautiful conservatory filled with rare orchids.

This is not a low-maintenance garden. The owner works in it for at least six hours a day and she takes very few holidays.

What is really incredible about it, however, is that she didn’t begin work on it until she had retired.
Before that it was simply an acre of lawns and conifers but in her mind she knew that, once she had time, nothing was going to prevent her from transforming it.

Agnes Stevenson