Peter Dowdall loves his wallflowers for their stalwart work in the garden

On returning from a recent trip to Ikea I had to ditch the habit of a lifetime, I gave in and read the instructions.

Being a male I’m not naturally pre- disposed to reading these ‘unnecessary’ publications and also being a gardener I am inherently of the ‘give it a go and let’s see what happens’ persuasion.

This really is the best way to garden as if you live by the text book then you don’t give yourself the opportunity to trust your instinct, to truly connect to the energy of the garden and to learn from that most basic of things, experience. However, Ikea beat me and instructions needed to be read.