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With such a dull, damp and dismal start to the year, I didn't feel very motivated to venture into my garden. That all changed last Friday as I watched Carol Klein's new series, Life in a Cottage Garden, documenting her gardening year at Glebe

removing the wild plants, perhaps the gardeners could have planted the tulips among them. Rather than tulips, spring bulbs such as crocus, snake's head fritillary and snowdrops, could have been planted to provide a much-needed early source of nectar

I recently undertook a spot of tidying in one of my flowerbeds. Generally I avoid clearing up too early in winter, and I don’t remove too much old growth, as retaining it can limit plant damage during late-winter cold snaps.Usually, after spending

degrees of frosty weather in between. I like to think a deep carpet of snow, although clearly at zero degrees or less, is actually insulating plants below from even colder air temperatures above. Hopefully no harm will come to the perennials and bulbs

its way through the frozen ground and came in to bloom, all on its own. I have planted hundreds of daffodil bulbs in the same spot, but no others have shown even the slightest hint of appearing quite so early. It has been out, looking delicately

What do you look for in a good garden centre? I would imagine most people would expect garden centres to offer a great range of plants along with a heavy dose of inspiration and expert advice.However, many garden centres have been transformed

jolly day with some great plants (all of them clearly labelled), then you can't go wrong with Wisley.I was there a week or so ago to watch things grow: the whole garden thrums with the promise of approaching spring. There are, of course, the obvious

-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

compost to improve my soil, sprinkling it around newly planted bulbs and divided perennials. And with the cost of gardening forever on the increase I'll save a small fortune on bags of soil improvers and compost from the garden centre.

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