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Like Verbena bonariensis these lillies have a see-through quality so don't block the view. Grown in tall long-tom pots lily stems and leaves are far easier to patrol for the grubs of the red menace, the lily beetle. When the pots are lifted up onto a table like a car on a mechanics ramp, the grubs are easy to spot and squash. Now that this pest is so prevalent, I find pots are the only way to grow lilies - bulbs planted out-of-sight and mind in the borders get eaten over-night.

I discovered my favourite view of Greenacre while filming there this week. Looking across from my cottage-style front garden, through the curved trellis support of the peach trees in the Gourmet garden towards the cosmos meadow there are literally thousands of flowers. Brilliant!

Despite the rain Joe, Alys and I have had a lot of fun judging the results of our various veg-growing competitions. I'll not give away the results but all I'll say is that, if Joe had realised that this was the final judging and not left his best carrot to "grow on until it comes out the bottom of the drain pipe" (he'd sown seed in the top of three foot lengths) the results would have been different. His mistake to leave the biggest of his vegetable 'runners and riders' for later only became apparent when Alys and I pulled out of the competition by pulling up the rest of our carrots for lunch. If there is a lesson to be learnt, it's when it comes to big-veg always put your best foot-long carrot forward - you might not get another chance!