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, but it is heartening to see the sun when it does come out. Tomorrow, anticipating the arrival of spring, I will pay a visit the garden centre. Included on my shopping list will be seed potatoes, which are sold loose, by the kilo, enabling me to buy the exact amount I

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

to inject a note of optimism the second picture, below, is of the same area in May - so all is not lost).Now is the time start the big chop back in readiness for the spring. Over the next few weeks I will be cutting back pretty much everything, pruning roses

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

March is not really prime garden visiting time: a few gardens with specialist collections are open for the wonderful National Gardens Scheme, but most of them are keeping their powder dry in readiness for spring and summer.However, gardeners still

February is a blessedly short month. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you this, but 28 days of cold wet yukkiness is hardly conducive to horticultural excitement. However, we have to get through it in order to edge our way closer to spring, so

year’s debris is cleared we can already see the nubs of bulbs and foetal leaves beginning to develop. While we gardeners have been loafing in front of the television and grumbling about the snow, our gardens have been busy.Now all we need is a thaw.

Has the snow been a good or bad thing for our gardens? Well, probably a bit of both, but I do live in hope that the cold weather has helped kill off a few garden pests. We've all had our fair share of snow over the past couple of weeks, with varying

to deep mud. They’re in a worse state than they get into in the depths of a wet winter, and it’s only the end of November. I’ve had to plant the last of my spring-flowering bulbs in containers, as I can’t plant them into the saturated soil. In an attempt

products at many garden centres. Christmas takes centre stage as baubles and singing Santas replace spring-flowering bulbs, and once again I'll be left searching in vain for gardening inspiration.Now, I'm not saying that all these fabulous marketing