What you want, of course, is a bit of shade. It feels hot everywhere, even in the shade; but if you just had a patch of something sombre to sit in, for a moment at least, the pouring sweat would stop. At least that's the theory. I could also use a patch of shade for the small children. It's not even just my own small child, it's other people's.

Our green-fingered correspondent Anna Pavord continues her A-Z of horticultural pests and problems standing between you and your perfect garden

There's nothing nicer than spending time out back, says Emma Townshend.

When it's too hot to walk as far as the corner shop for a beverage, there's only one thing to do: make it yourself at home.

By way of consumer research, I asked a hard-drinking friend of mine if he knew of any pubs in his area with good flowers. "Flowers?" he said incredulously. "Flowers?" he repeated, his voice rising with disdain. "I don't go to pubs for bloody flowers".

The flowers are known as denizens of macramé pot-holders and stale pub window-boxes, says Emma Townshend.

I've just come back in from fighting hogweed in Foxpatch. The battle has been going on since we arrived here and first started to let the grass grow long in this half-acre plot. Each summer for the past seven years, we've cut off the hogweed flower heads to prevent it seeding. Every week, from early June onwards, I take off more than 200 of the wretched things. And each year the hogweeds come back. This is the reality of trying to manage a "meadow". The bullies are always trying to muscle in.

What to do

The Italians have been no slouches in creating steep, cliffside gardens with spectacular drops to cool, glistening blue-green water

Do you really need that hedge-trimmer? And how to tackle moles. Anna's essential A-Z continues

What to do

Understanding the way different hues work together is key to understanding the art of gardening. And it's a skill that requires fine tuning, says Emma Townshend.

Anna Pavord visits the Le Pavillon de Galon, which was once a hunting lodge and sits in a landscape of vines and olive trees.

What to do

What to do