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and barrowing loads of muck all over the place. For a while everything will be empty and brown but beneath the soil roots will be stretching, bulbs will be shooting, worms will be worming and everything will be getting ready to sprout.But, for those of you

of year “in the green”. This means that they appear with leaves rather than as dried bulbs. You do not have to have a huge woodland in order to grow bluebells as they will grow happily under deciduous shrubs or along hedgelines.Like all the best things

available.2. Snowdrops: The first sign of life. Best not planted as bulbs, though. They should be planted in about March ‘in the green’. This means that they are dug up after flowering and planted then.3. Iris reticulata: really, really special. A gorgeous

closes, if you look closely then spring is visible everywhere. We have buds fattening as quickly as a troupe of bun-loving chubbies and the pointy shoots of bulbs push themselves through the cold soil. These are stark reminders that soon things will need

stop to our normal November gardening routine. I would usually be spending jolly weekends doing a bit of light tidying, collecting the last of the autumn leaves and planting the last of the tulip bulbs. Instead we have been shoveling snow out

when pricking out.May the mice be so full of cheese that they have no room left to fill up on your tulip bulbs and sweet pea seedlings.May the autumn leaves fall into a neat pile.May your wheelbarrows never get punctures and the handles of your spades

in wide birch forests, as those of you who have seen Dr Zhivago will know. Willows are fine, as are limes, hazel, oaks and most pines.Snow is actually good insulation and many herbaceous plants and bulbs are quite happy snuggled up under a snowy duvet

hiding amongst piles of debris.Try making a slug deterrent by crushing two bulbs of garlic and boiling them in a litre of water for a few minutes. Add a tablespoonful of this to five litres of water and sprinkle on the leaves every couple of weeks