Peak lockdown purchase on-line so far has been 100 cans of coke, not because I wanted so much to drink but because it was the only way to realistically meet the wholesaler’s minimum spend and purchase the samba oelek I actually wanted.

I can (sort of) imagine my family making it’s way through the cans over the next few weeks. I couldn’t imagine the same usage of 50 jars of intense Indonesian chilli sauce. We went for four jars of chillies paste. It’s one of the few vegetarian brands around.

Mostly though when it comes to food, I’m buying much the same as usual though 25% extra to cater for the extra adult no living at home.

My real problem is buying for the garden.

The problem is two fold: firstly, there are lots of lovely plants out there that would look wonderful in my garden, the garden that I’m not basically obliged through boredom to spend lots more time sitting in; and, secondly, there’s a time delay on almost all purchases.

The latter is the real problem. Because everything is taking weeks to arrive, after a day or two, I get antsy and start to think of something else that would look just as good or better. When these plants finally arrive, I’m going to have a huge amount of work to get through in very short order. Since my attitude to the garden is one of essential laziness, this is going to be a problem so I’d better plan.

Garden (4) furthest from the house, shady and dry as can be given the yew, holly, privet and hawthorn hedges i’ve sub-contracted out some work with a company coming in to cut the yew hedge back to a manageable size and to raise the canopy on the yews I’ve let run to trees.

I’ve also ordered some beehive composers that will live in the corners and which I’ll probably use to store bought compost as everywhere is far to dry to actually compost garden matter back there. I suppose if I were to wrap it in plastic, I could compost some leaf mould from Autumn leaves.

I’ve also ordered three huge (1m) perspex mirror stars. Just because.

For a few years I’ve been thinking about standing some up against the holly hedge as a decoration and then lockdown boredom hit home and I got tap happy on the website.

So far so simple but then we hit the 48 mixed foxglove plug plants. I’m probably supposed to grow these on before planting, but it seems unlikely that will happen. In an ideal worlds, I’ll thread them through the geraniums currently taking over the space and they’ll hopefully pop up in June/July, re-seeding and putting on a good show for years to come. Hmm. Foxgloves are biennials. Will the plug plants flower this year or next?

The shady garden is livened up with brightly coloured pots, full of begonias which are the easiest most tolerant bedding plants for dry shade. Some of the orange begonias come back year after year, but I’ve started using white to fill the pots in shade as they stand out more. This year I’ll have 30 Begonia ‘Non-Stop Joy Mocca White’ garden ready plants to find a home for, maybe 15 in garden (4) and 15 in garden (2)

For garden (3) the lawn I’m letting grow wild, I’ve the easiest purchase to deal with i.e. 1 scatter pack of wildflower seed which I should probably rake and clear some grass before sowing but will no doubt end up just giving a couple of throws over the grass. If there’s any left, I might try it in any empty bits of the shady garden (4). With a neighbour’s tree about to pop it’s clogs, the canopy is getting thinner and sunny but dry would suit more plants. I’d be ecstatic if we managed to end up with dappled shade as opposed to the stygian depths currently endured.

I’ve also ordered a replacement for the penstemon that kicked the bucket a Winter ago (1 Penstemon ‘Pensham Just Jayne’) that will need to be dug into a gap and rather a lot (12) Geranium ‘Rozanne’ jumbo plug plants which will fill some gaps around the roses in the borders of both garden (3) and (2).

Garden (2) has 6 pots in shade (Begonia ‘Non-Stop Joy Mocca White’) to be planted up to supplement any surviving begonias from last year. It also has some pots and troughs in full sun which need something different. Plus there are the hanging baskets which I plan to plant up again. I live in hope that for once I might remember to water the beggars often enough.

They have some variegated cat mint and last year’s moss (maybe from the year before) so I’ll just top them up with some small plants and try to keep them watered. In the centre, around the plastic water bottle reservoir, I’ll plant up two of the 5 Geranium ‘Appleblossom Rosebud’ jumbo plug plants which are a sort of pinkish white. I should probably add a contrast into the baskets, maybe some of the 20 Calibrachoa ‘Million Bells Blue’ Postiplug plants or lobelia?

It also has a small trough spilling over the wall with a few gaps I usually fill with lobelia. This year I have ordered too many i.e. 36 blueLobelia ‘Monsoon’ plug plants so they’ll be filling up troughs by the gravel path and any split over will find their way to the gravel garden.

My daughter plans on repeating her efforts at growing vegetables in pots and bags so we’re expecting 6 Tomato ‘Tumbling Tom Red’ plug plants, having already kicked off three bags of potatoes.

Garden (1) has pots, lots of pots leading up the stairs and also some already full of ferns near to the water spout. In the blue pots on the stairs, some geraniums have survived from last year and I plan to top them up with some of the 10 bright red Geranium ‘Octavia Hill jumbo plug plants. The clash between bright red plants an blue pots works well, almost better if there’s a mishmash of reds in the pots themselves.

For the other pots, I plan to brighten them up with some (10) white Calibrachoa ‘Million Bells White’ plug plants, 10 white Petunia ‘Trailing Surfing White plug plants and 24 Bacopa ‘Snowtopia’ plug plants. Again any left over will make their way to the gravel garden to supplement the geranium and fleabane daisies that are taking over everywhere.

• 48 mixed foxglove;
• 30 Begonia ‘Non-Stop Joy Mocca White’;
• wildflower seed;
• 1 Penstemon ‘Pensham Just Jayne’;
• 12 Geranium ‘Rozanne’ jumbo plug plants;
• 5 Geranium ‘Appleblossom Rosebud’ jumbo plug plants;
• 10 Calibrachoa ‘Million Bells Blue’ Postiplug plants;
• 36 blueLobelia ‘Monsoon’;
• 6 Tomato ‘Tumbling Tom Red’ plug plants;
• 10 bright red Geranium ‘Octavia Hill jumbo plug plants;
• (10) white Calibrachoa ‘Million Bells White’ plug plants;
• 10 white Petunia ‘Trailing Surfing White plug plants; and,
• 24 Bacopa ‘Snowtopia’ plug plants