At the back of the house we have a terrace onto which all of the downstairs rooms open.  This is utterly divine when the weather is fine as I feel like I’m living some in Tuscan-come-Somerset dream sequence.

There are borders surrounding the house which need some attention if not only for the Brazilian Firecracker which is taking over – and not in a good way. I can’t understand this plant; aggressive and fast growing with the tiniest red tubular flower. It’s strangling the roses and killing off the other clematis. Apparently it’s a great plant to attract Hummingbirds – naturally we have hundreds of those in the Quantock Hills! To my mind there’s no merit here and we’ve been happily ripping it out.

The other dominant plant in the borders is mint – spearmint, lemon mint, cat mint – you name it we’ve got it.  In the last few weeks since moving  here I’ve loved the immense amount we’ve harvested for our Pimms but today was met with Mint Armageddon as I simply couldn’t face yet another fruity concoction. All I wanted was a beer and I was not the one to feel guilty. So, I dug it all out – an entire bed of mint approximately 10ft in length, roots and all and down to the depths of the milky white tubers, we had it all.

With Pimms, you simply must follow the Jackson method and make it with tonic water rather then lemonade and add some borage as well as the  mint.  The most important thing with Pimms is to enjoy it in the moment.  My moment today was casting aside the mint.

The Brazilian Firecracker (Manettia luteorubra)