Writer shares secrets of how to find small joys in gardening

Author Charlotte Mendelson says you should focus on fun rather than yield, banish 'gardener's guilt' and be realistic

Charlotte Mendelson. Picture: Graeme Robertson/PA

Gardening can be devastatingly overwhelming at times. 

The chomping of slugs, the vagaries of the weather, your enthusiasm crushed by a pitiful harvest. It’s easy to despair, especially when TV and books make gardening sound so simple — surely you should be drowning in marrows by now? Eating homegrown radishes with every meal? Making jam?