I recently read a survey that revealed ‘52 tiny annoying problems which irritated people the most’. Not surprisingly, I found what people find annoying the most irritating thing of all, although there were one or two handy ‘remedies’ amongst the ‘complaints’.

One thing gardeners find annoying is losing small hand tools like a trowel, as they are inevitably always ‘earthy colours’. The suggested solution was to putting a ring of bright coloured tape round the handle, so you can see where you put it down. One of my dry stone walling instructors has spray- painted the handles of his tools bright orange – not so much to avoid losing them but so you know which are your tools at the end of the day.

It’s one reason I love my Okatsune secateurs. Apart form being light and super sharp, they have one red handle and one white handle. Despite having a menopausal memory, I haven’t lost them in four years.

Another source of annoyance for some (for me it would be the actual menopause) was peeling root ginger. The advice is to peel it with a teaspoon, as ‘it’s unbeatable for getting into all the nooks and crannies’. My advice – eat the peel, it’s added fibre and is a great example of when a problem needn’t be a problem.

Possibly the most useful thing I learned from the article was that ‘cleaning up’ WhatsApp and other messaging apps can free up valuable space on your mobile phone. Not surprisingly, I have a very old phone and whilst I don’t have many apps and my photos are stored in a ‘cloud’ (fascinates me every time), I do use messaging apps rather than make a phone call.

Apparently every picture, gif and meme sent or received eats up space on your phone so regularly clearing out messaging storage can save you gigabytes of memory. WhatsApp has a tool for it - simply go to “manage storage”, in its settings. I haven’t actually done it yet, but will. So apologies in advance if you don’t get a response from me in future – it means I’ve deleted something I shouldn’t have.

Something I do find annoying in the garden are large weeds like brambles (the type that don’t even bother to offer blackberries), that stand loftily above herbaceous or poke out of shrubs, as if waving. Two of my ‘neat’ top tips to keep your garden looking as though someone cares about it at this overwhelming time of year is to hand pull (or even cut off) the large weeds that ‘wave’ to you and cut them back from pathways.

Secondly, keep the lawn edges neatly clipped. By trimming the grassed edges and keeping the first couple of inches of a bed or border clear, you’ll not notice the renegade weeds.

I’ve been reading a lot about AI this week and according to The Wall Street Journal, the ‘job destruction’ has already started. Procter & Gamble has cut 7,000 jobs, Estée Lauder and dating-app operator Match Group both recently ‘let 20 per cent of their managers go’ and Microsoft plans to lay off thousands of employees in its sales department. All due to AI.

Predictions suggest ‘knowledge workers’ – from call centre employees to accountants and lawyers – will be replaced by AI. One human with an AI assistant will manage the work that previously required ten humans. Reassuringly, The Economist suggests that the areas less likely to be impacted are the skilled trades – gardening being one of them. It has long been said that gardening is good for you – it might be in more way than one in the future.