Wednesday 8th is The National Day of Prayer Reflection and Thanksgiving in Montserrat, in the West Indies. I mention this as I lived on the Caribbean island for several years in my early 20’s. Air Studios (the recording studio) was in operation on the island at the time and I regularly windsurfed with Mark Knopfler, (if you listen to Walk of Life you’ll hear the line, ‘Danny, do the walk of life’ – Danny was the guy who taught us both to windsurf. I danced around the pool (many pools) with Midge Ure, nearly set up a riding school on the island with Eric Clapton and spent hours at Air Studios with George Martin. It was an absolutely amazing time of my life, and proof that we just don’t know what life holds for us.

Sadly, Montserrat hit the headlines when the Soufriere Hills Volcano erupted on the 25th June 1997 and completely destroyed the capital Plymouth and the whole southern part of the island, where I used to live. Resilient islanders relocated to the north, which was largely unpopulated, and set up new lives.

The public holiday on Montserrat on Wednesday will bring the community together to reflect and give thanks for the blessings received despite past adversities.

I’ll be lighting a candle and remembering my life in a parallel universe.

For the few years that I lived on Montserrat, as well as writing for the Montserrat Reporter, I continued to write and fax my columns back to The Abergavenny Chronicle. I would often ring my dad first to see what the weather and conditions were back in Wales. I have written these columns for over 40 years and it’s interesting to look back and see how the climate, and gardening styles have altered.

When I came back to Wales, there was a lot of talk about summer droughts becoming common place and I cheerfully used my experiences of gardening in a tropical climate for many talks and columns. That was 35 years ago and whilst we are still talking about summer heat-waves becoming the norm, there have been very many years in between where that’s not been the case. However, now, the ground does seem to be drying out much quicker and not fully recovering during the winter months. Hardy plants are now wilting and I have witnessed several ‘sudden branch drops’, where trees literally drop a bough as a result of drought-stress and in order to try and conserve essential moisture.

I look after several planted tubs on display at Llangattock Church and trying to keep them well watered has proven really difficult this year. So much so, that I had to redo them last week – and am very grateful to Abergavenny Garden Centre for their very generous offer to ‘help myself to anything on the bedding trolleys’. Blake, Gavin and team, are remarkably charitable and help no end of local ‘good causes’ throughout the year. We are lucky to have such a fabulous (and generous) independent local garden centre.

I do think, going forward, that we will need to use plants that are more drought tolerant in our gardens, incorporate irrigation systems and store and utilise any rainfall more diligently than we do. Veg may well be easier to grow in tubs and containers close to the house in order for it to be watered more regularly and easily – which reminds me that Abergavenny Garden Centre has some beautiful wooden half-barrels planted with sweetcorn, runner beans and other veggies for sale and all very close to being ready to harvest.

I think they’re ahead of the 'climate curve'.