Barry the builder looked out of the windows. 'Cor' he said, 'that looks a mess'. Now, I know Barry's garden. Grass edged with borders too narrow for aught but a row of daffs now, lobelias later on. It's difficult being a garden writer. Barry clearly believes that neatness, tidiness, is all. In my garden, alas, the plants win hands down. Epimediums tangle amongst untidy branches of Paeonia delavayi, and begin to swamp the last remaining patches of double pink hepaticas. I've had to rescue an even rarer one from beneath engulfing Daphne pontica (self seeding like mad). We divided up a big clump of Primula vulgaris 'sibthorpii', and somehow planted them over the top of clumps of double aconite. As they both flower at much the same time, the colour clash of the rather vivid purple of the primula, and the greeny yellow of the aconite is quite horrible... but the plants thrive nevertheless...
