Thoroughly agree Stella. Sorry Tory, doesn’t look like the place for a hydrangea unless you choose the type with tiny leaves and very woody stems - I’ve got a couple of white ones like that. “Normal” hydrangeas can take a watering can of water every day and still look wretched by mid day during a heatwave. I’ve got some in pots on the terrace of our cottage and they are always in shade - they do fine and are useful in high summer when guests are staying as they have lovely big mop head blooms.
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Could it be some sort of marguerite or aster type thing? Mind you plenty of weeds in that family too…
We have oak leaf hydrangeas that survived well last year despite heat and lack of water.
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Unfortunately I was a bit too confident of my method it worked fine the previous time but not so well at the moment as the blighter is still there and he is doing a lot of damage to some expensive new plants. I like the idea of the cats though we’re not particularly animal lovers. Is there any particular type of cat that we should look out for? Professional help? Do you mean a yearly contract with a mole catcher?
A normal moggy I would think but other cat lovers may be able to advise. Since cats are horrendously promiscuous, you’d never get a specific breed anyway without spending a fortune.
Personally I would warn against cats unless you already love them, for the following reasons -
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You can’t guarantee it will be a hunter - and even if it is, it will probably go off the idea when older unless you starve it.
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Cat crap is REALLY noxious and will not only kill plants, it will be left in your veg patch, given a chance, especially if sowing seeds
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Like most pets, it will be a liability if you want to go away at all
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They have a dreadful tendency to wheedle their way into your affections so will complicate your life no end!
These comments are a bit tongue in cheek but they result from us having been adopted as suitable servants by a neighbouring cat 
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Oh gosh another thing on my huge list to do! Does that include Mirabelle’s? Presumably prune after fruiting?
Ideally yes. Although round here they prune plumes right through winter. But that maybe just because the plume orchards are so large they just have to get on with it - regardless of silver leaf.
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Looks like Dogwood - a Cornus species.
Chop it down and dig the roots out - or chop it down and watch it really spread. They sprout from the base - and they’re indestructible bar digging the root out - or borrow a turfer off a neighbour and pull it out.
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Just chop it back as you need to, trees are good 
it’ll be a nice refuge for your hens
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I didn’t know that dogwoods could get that big 
What did it look like in winter @toryroo ? They’re usually grown for their brightly coloured stems in winter, but they have to be pruned right back every year to get the best effect…
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Common dogwood Cornus sanguinea, cut it down and treat with tree stump killer.
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Normally I would agree with you Vero, but I made the mistake of using these as small trees round the garden at the beginning when we had no money for plants and they were “free”. They are a nightmare to control. 
Firstly, they sucker - so they rarely stay as “trees” and rapidly become a thicket.
Secondly they have clusters of pretty white flowers in spring (great) and all these little flowers turn into small berries which then drop, root and send up another tree/bush/triffid.
Thirdly, if you do want to keep them as small trees at this time of the year they sprout all along their stems so the mass of little branchlets need pruning off if the “tree” is to keep a remotely open appearance.
The common dogwood does have reddish young stems but is nothing as fancy as the special coloured stem ones in nurseries. I’ve got a couple of yellow stemmed ones, but they are equally as badly behaved.
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Oh no!! I have them but my soil is so rubbish they come to nothing…
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Oh dear, explains so much! so how did you get rid of them?
I didn’t.
Oh dear 
Where do I buy that and what is it called?
Please be careful what chemicals you use… 
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Tree stump killers are nasty chemicals (well they used to be, maybe has been weakened now).
Easiest is to drill vertical holes in the stump and fill with salt.
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