In the pub this evening, my friend Gordon (who specialises in creating hand crafted chairs from local wood) was asking what we’d been doing today – you know, the way you do. I explained that we’d been cutting down a couple of elder trees which had seeded in the garden and quickly grown to an uncomfortably large size. “I suppose you’ll be writing about it in your blog,” he said. Well, it certainly looks like it.

“Isn’t Judas supposed to have hung himself on an elder tree?” somebody asked. “Are they tall enough?” asked somebody else. “Do they even grow in that part of the world?” I wondered.

Well, the common elder, Sambucus nigra, does indeed grow in Israel and I suspect that in that climate it grows more slowly and develops denser and tougher wood than it does here in Britain. The chain saw just slices through branches even 15cm/6in across because the wood is so soft. Not to put too fine a point on it, I don’t think the 20ft/6m elder that I've just chopped down in our garden would not support the weight of man.

As it happens, only this morning I was looking at a rather different elder down at Foxtail Lilly, my friend Tracey Mathieson’s garden. I’ve been looking into the plants which do well in dry shade and underneath a tall conifer – and doing very well in this classic dry shade location - she has a variegated elder.

It looks to me like ‘Albovariegata’. This is a form with slightly irregular but clean white edges to the leaves and although less than half of each leaf is white it really brings light to a very dark and shady place. ‘Madonna’, the variegated elder that’s more often seen, is creamier in colour and also seems less vigorous.

It’s interesting to note that the elders that grow back in Pennsylvania, Sambucus nigra subsp. canadensis, never seem to get more than 5-6ft/1.5-1.8m high at the very most.

By the way: The King’s Arms at Polebrook in Northamptonshire is hosting a beer festival this weekend featuring an blend of local English ales (Golden Drop from Ufford Ales was simply glorious tonight) with al fresco cooking by the deft hand and wok of landlord Justin Capp. Tonight the traditional English ales were accompanied by a noodle bar with delicious Thai curries and tomorrow he’s serving paella! English beer, noodles, paella…? Take my word for it, it’s a perfect match.