So there we are, I’ve said it. 2010 is officially my worst gardening year ever.

It started quite badly with a harsh winter, late Spring and family bereavement. Then when the weather did finally get going I didn’t, but when I did, things just didn’t work out.

First there was a late frost. Initially I thought my strawberry plants had survived, until my neighbour pointed out the black centre to all my flowers. I did try pulling the flowers off so new ones could be produced, but it didn’t work. Result, no strawberries.

The wood pigeons attacked my peas without mercy. What they didn’t destroy from the top, the mole did from below. Result, hardly any peas.

Then there was the sweetcorn, or perhaps I should say, then there wasn’t the sweetcorn. The plants grew OK, but some had tassels and no beards some had beards and no tassels. What’s that about? Result hardly any sweetcorn.

Whilst some of the veg have been a disaster, the flowers haven’t been brilliant either. It’s been so dry. One particular disappointment was my ‘Morning Glory’ (Skylark Mixed).

I’ve always wanted one, and so this year I sowed some seeds. I got 3 plants, which, according to the packet should have grown to 10 feet high and 2 feet across. Bearing their potential size in mind I was careful where I planted them, sat back and waited to be stunned with their blue and white flowers

What a disappointment. Each one turned into a  spindly plant hardly 3 feet high. The flowers were lovely but too few and far between.

Then there was the lawn mower, the big ride-on one. It hasn’t worked properly since 13th June. In the beginning this didn’t matter much as it was so dry the grass wasn’t growing. Needless to say that can’t go on indefinitely in England, and it didn’t.

Consequently the grass in the field is a patchwork of lengths as I’ve had to resort to the electric Flymo to stop it getting completely out of hand, but I’m not fit enough to do it all in one go by that method. The ride-on mower is  in the process of being mended as we speak. New drive belt, new belt for the cutting deck.

Having said that, what does cutting the grass matter when the mole is covering the entire area in mole hills. They are bad enough but it’s the hidden depressions that nearly break your ankle that are the real pain.

He’s everywhere this year. He’s even sent a mole hill up between the stone slabs on the patio. How does he do that?

Finally there is the pub hedge which runs along one side of the garden. It is leylandii and hasn’t been cut for several years, needless to say it is very tall. So tall in fact that I have completely ignored that part of the garden this year.

The pub has been empty for months, in fact it hasn’t really been running properly for years. To cut a long story short we contacted the brewery, Scottish and Newcastle, to get it sorted.

After some time a very nice chap called to say his team would be coming to do the job in 3-4 weeks time. That was on 22nd June, no sign of anyone since.

As it happens the pub was let later that week and we think the brewery have passed the job, not to say the expense, on to the new tennant, who has  probably  been horrified at the potential cost and put it on the bottom of their ‘to do’ list. Result, hedge still out of control.

We did manage to cut our hedges for another year. The garden always looks so much better when they’ve been done. Now the whole world can see my mole hills!

I know all of this isn’t the end of the world, and that there are a lot of people in much worse circumstances, but nevertheless, gardening for me this year has been a pain, not a pleasure.