It looks pretty bleak in our garden at 8 o’clock in the morning. But dramatic skies make up for the distinct lack of drama on the ground, where the snow, ice, frost and rain have turned the sloping lawn into a mudslide. A great mound of top soil, displaced by the first section of the terracing, which was completed last summer, sits under flapping layers of tarpaulin – a rather hopeless attempt to keep the local cats (including our own, I am sorry to say) from establishing it as a neighbourhood lavatory. I won’t give you the full and awful details of the problems that this heap of earth has caused, except to say that Sybil, our puppy, is far too interested in it. So, you get the general picture – all is not rosy on our plot. But this morning I noticed that one plant is valiantly doing its bit to provide at least a little loveliness.

I am not sure which Euphorbia this is, and will probably have to wait until it produces its acid green flowers to make an accurate identification. It was here when we moved in and has self seeded quite happily ever since. I love Euphorbias for so many reasons: their bulk within a border, where they prop up other reedier plants; their crazy acid green flower heads and glaucous leaves both of which are the perfect foil for the blues and purples of the plants I like (Nepeta Six Hills Giant, Verbena Bonariensis, salvias and geraniums).

I know lots of people are concerned about the milky sap that is produced when you cut their stems, but I really have never had any problems. When cutting back Euphorbias I avoid doing it in the middle of the day as I’ve read that skin which has been exposed to the sap can become irritated in direct sunlight. I don’t always wear gloves, which is probably foolhardy, but I do prune from the bottom up, that way I avoid the risk of sap dripping onto me as I work.