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. They look at five distinct areas (the Brief, Overall impression, Design, Construction and Planting) and prepare recommendations for the judges. Each area carries a set number of points: if you get more than 75 points then you get a gold medal.On judging day

, definitely be something local to you.For example, if you are in Dorset this coming weekend the Dorset Gardens Trust is taking over Chideock Manor for the day. There will be specialist plant stalls, flower arranging, cakes and a very distinguished team

of soil, what hard landscaping, which plants etc etcOn the day before the judging the gardens are visited by a team of assessors. They minutely examine the garden and award points in five categories; whether the brief has been realised, impact, design

. capillipes and A. grosseri.Cornus florida: a dogwood, but a long way from the red- and green-stemmed varieties we plant for a splash of winter colour. This one is a stunning plant that has green flowers surrounded by white bracts. These look like petals

it is dusty, noisy, and heaving with industrious folk and a lot of beautifully choreographed lorries (each one has to arrive at a particular time to avoid complete chaos). There were also diggers, wheelbarrows, cranes, trolleys full of exquisite plants, men

have to admit that it looks better mown.)Large-leaved plants - by this time last year many larger-leaved plants were looking as if they had just spent a week pursuing the Foreign Legion across a particularly tricky bit of the sahara. This year

, the occasional rose clings on, the Sedum has sprawled and the seed catalogues thud onto the doormat (postal strikes permitting).It is the most relaxed time in the garden not just because the plants are semi-comatose but also because there is not a lot to do

of colour, so rose hips come as a welcome lift.Some plants have naturally perfect skeletons - grasses like Calmagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster', herbaceous plants like Echinacea purpurea and shrubs like Ceratostigma willmottianum. Others are more

, as with comfrey, is as a plant food. If you soak the crushed nettles in water for about a month, you'll end up with a liquid feed that should be diluted by one part in ten before application. If sprayed on plants it can also prevent fungal disease. Nettles also

pretty widespread, especially around the midlands.Muntjac are not friends of the gardener and are quite capable of doing a fair bit of damage, not only to the soft shoots of emerging plants but can also strip bark from trees. You can deter them from