THE end of August and once again time has flown, leaving the garden hinting of autumn. Returning from a two-week holiday, we found our garden overflowing; the weather had, apparently, been a mixture of hot sun and downpours, ideal growing conditions for plants and most of all the lawn.

It was hard work cutting the thick growth of juicy grass and we trailed a layer of cuttings into the house for days.

The end of summer is the time to look around and consider what needs to be done to improve the garden for the following year. For us, 2003 is going to be a traumatic time because the garden is to be completely changed as we add what is grandly being called a garden room to the end of the kitchen.

This will involve the removal of the south-facing bed, filled at the moment with roses, delphiniums, rosemary, lavender, dahlia, michaelmas daisies, penstemon, and many more precious specimens, most carrying a sentimental attachment.

As they die back they will have to be dug up, cut back and potted up until next summer. This, of course, is to be optimistic: next autumn may be a more realistic forecast, while spring 2004 is to be utterly pessimistic.

We spent our holiday in central Brittany, an area famous for its hydrangeas or Hortensias, as they are known there. They grow everywhere, revelling in the warm, damp climate and sunshine, which we were lucky to enjoy virtually unbroken throughout our stay. Most are blue and purple, growing against the walls of old stone cottages throughout the region, reaching the lower windows and spilling out on to paths.

Like the rest of France, even the smallest village takes pride in its display of plants decorating bridges and fences, which must be tended daily to keep them watered and looking fresh.

The range of plants used is vast, from geraniums and petunias to grasses, cannas and huge angelica. In one town where we stopped, a large meadow had been created outside a church, filled with a mixture of hardy annuals.

Updated: 09:56 Saturday, August 31, 2002