Electric garden tools are the sustainable way forward. I enjoy the peace of the garden, hearing the burbling burn and enjoying the endlessly singing bids and buzzing pollinators.

It’s certainly better than a mower’s dull intrusive moan competing discordantly with the one next door. And, most importantly, an electric mower isn’t belching out 2.3Kg of CO2 per litre every Saturday morning.

The lawnmower is usually our priciest bit of gear, but there are hedge trimmers, grass trimmers, leaf blowers and chainsaws as well. So when planning to replace one, choose a cordless electric equivalent.

But only get a new one when you actually need it. Times are hard with prices skyrocketing thanks to Putin’s megalomaniac assault on Ukraine.

And the carbon cost of manufacturing a machine before it’s needed can’t be justified.

I had to break this rule recently when, after a serious back injury, I could no longer pull a start cord and a simple on-off switch was the only way forward.

But steer clear of potentially lethal corded tools with terrible trailing cables. They’re cheap but not cheerful.

When choosing battery machines I doubted if they’d be tough enough to handle my tasks. We have paths through our wilder areas and there’s a lot of autumn clearing in the orchard and elsewhere, so I needed a strimmer that could handle a couple of hours of hard work.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by my heavy duty Stihl trimmer and my new chainsaw copes with fallen branches and smaller trees, even if it can’t tackle larger ones.

The battery is the biggest problem as it runs out after 20-40 minutes, long before a job is done and it could take up to an hour to recharge.

So a second battery is essential. The snag? At upwards of £80, batteries are nearly as expensive as the machine itself.

Each brand produces batteries that are compatible with all its tools. So stick to one brand, Stihl, Husqvarna or whatever and swap the batteries round.

Camassia leichtlinii ‘Blue Heaven’, a vigorous plant with spires of pale blue, star shaped flowers. Camassias grow from bulbs, best planted in autumn, and are native to damp meadows in North America. They establish well in grass where the leaves, about 60cm long, must be left to die down naturally, like all bulbs. This means not mowing them until late June or even in to July.

Give Camassias some support in a border to avoid smothering their neighbours.They do also spread so congested clumps can be divided just before the leaves disappear.

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