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. To revive the plant remove it from the pot, cut it in half and turn the outside edges so that they face inwards then replant in the pot with a bit of fresh compost. So simple.The general rule is that early-flowering plants should be divided in the autumn

in the way of a lot of large people wearing clumpy boots. The same has happened to an entire bed that should look like this but instead looks like this.This weekend I shall cut everything down and consign it to the compost heap. So what to do? Depressingly

-forgiving whiteness has gone and left behind it … well, a lot of soggy, mucky chaos. Hedges are staggering slightly after supporting all that weight and my flower borders look about as attractive as roadside ditches. I tend to leave my herbaceous plants standing

and kept below their normal height. They're not much good if you're looking for flowers, but for sheer well-cut elegance you can't really go wrong. You know the sort of thing: yew hedges with razor edges, parasols of pleached lime and frost-dusted box

and they're looking a bit scraggy round the edges. Usually I have no objections to a bit of scrag, but if they are cut back, the geraniums will put on some lush new growth and the salvias will flower again later in the summer. The allium seed heads look

next door to a wood. At this time of year, my younger son and I venture forth with loppers and bow saw to coppice some hazel. Coppicing is an ancient form of woodland management where cutting particular trees down leads to regrowth from the stump. Where

sheltered area, then there are a couple of exotic trees that are truly spectacular. The silk tree (Albizia julibrissin f. rosea) has large pinnate leaves and flowers like pink starbursts.Also, Weinmannia trichosperma, which is a Chilean evergreen with fern

is so extremely laid back and relaxed.In this garden there isn't much really urgent work that needs to be done. Many plants have done their bit and are just hanging around waiting for the winter; those that are still flowering do so with an admirable air

to be done. Spring is a bit like a rollercoaster: you get very slowly winched up through the long days of winter until you teeter on the top. Then suddenly it is downhill rush as everything starts sprouting and growing and flowering and, unless you

be dark and droopy and rapidly on its way to becoming complete mush. There is no chance of any more flowers until next summer. So cut down your plants and dig up the conglomeration of dangling tubers you will find underground. Clean off as much of the wet