James has been admiring and praising my garden. Just wandering through to chat with me about something, and then he drifts off with a comment or two about how cool it is, or how it's the best garden in Arcola. Here I stifle something between a giggle and a snort. I know of a few gardens he must not have seen yet.

Still, praise from my kids is heady stuff.

Today he declared that he liked the carrots best, because they're so perfect, or orderly, or something like that. They're like a field, he said, and the onions are like shelterbelts.

It took me a moment to come up with a response that wouldn't knock his enthusiasm. I don't remember how I said it - something about tidiness not necessarily making it the best garden.

He assured me that the plants would like it. "They like a clean and tidy home."

I thought about a garden that would suggest otherwise, but he was wandering away, so I left it at that.