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-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

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

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

and cane fruitsTake hardwood cuttings from healthy fruit bushesFruit & vegPlant hippeastrum bulbs for spring displays Insulate your greenhouse with bubble polytheneVentilate greenhouses on warm, dry daysGreenhouse20 minutesLearn how to make fat cakes

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

.Stachyurus praecox - deciduous shrub that grows to about 3m high. The hanging, greenish flowers in early spring (before the leaves appear) are very pretty. Leaves good in autumn as well.Magnolia denudata - one of the finest magnolias which flowers a couple of weeks

and water them well. Try not to let the compost dry out.Wrap the lights around the box cones. Make sure the bulbs are evenly spaced then connect to your power supply.AdamKeep box in good condition by trimming in spring and feeding regularly.More seasonal

This has slender branches and forms tussocks about 1.5m wide and high. With its attractive whorls it looks similar to horsetail. It has golden-brown flower heads in spring, followed by dark-brown seedheads.Elegia capensisThis bears thrusting 3m tall stems

it looks like. (We've had it where I work - very nasty - have to avoid growing onions and all alliums for years!I know that onion beds need to be kept weeded in summer or the onions become stressed and bolt, producing a flower spike that saps all

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