<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/tomato-blightaug16.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-3763" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/tomato-blightaug16-300x210.jpg" alt="tomato blight(aug16)" width="300" height="210" /></a>I'm beginning to think my life is becoming dominated by gardening - is that a bad thing? This morning I discovered that my tomatoes have tomato blight. For those who don't know it's a fungus like organism, airborne, and there is no cure. Some people say that it lasts for about 4 years in the soil and is liable to appear during warm, wet spells - we've had a lot of those this summer. I've tried cutting off the affected areas but I think it will spread throughout the plants so I've removed all the green tomatoes of a reasonable size in the hope they will redden on the utility room window cill. Gardening is full of disappointments but I continue to hope...

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/secret-garden-louthaug16.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-3764" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/secret-garden-louthaug16-225x300.jpg" alt="secret-garden-louth(aug16)" width="225" height="300" /></a>This afternoon I went with Nick and Val and Lucie to an open "Secret Garden" in Louth. This is a residential garden that the owners open to the public in aid of charity.

It was awash with colour and planted so tightly there was no room for any weeds. As we walked down the garden it kept opening up into different areas - some were in bright sunshine and others in shade so it was possible to see which flowers flourished in different locations.

The owner knew about our work installing Caitlin's garden at the hospice and he kindly gave me a "<a href="https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/92763/Salvia-elegans-Scarlet-Pineapple/Details?returnurl=%2Fplants%2Fsearch-results%3Fform-mode%3Dfalse%26query%3Dsalvia%26aliaspath%3D%252fplants%252fsearch-results" target="_blank">pineapple sage</a>" one of the Salvias. When someone gives a plant and so long as it survives the memory of the gift lives on with it. There's a rose in the back garden that was given by one of the doctors to Jane when she left the surgery and when it flowers it reminds me of that doctor and his wife - a gift that never stops giving.