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This week is the Malvern Spring Show and the first big Royal Horticultural Society flower show of the year. This is always a fun show not least because the setting is so remarkably beautiful. As you approach the show ground from the pretty town

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

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

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

: I was told it by Kim Hurst from the Cottage Herbery at the Malvern Spring Show last year (the 2009 show, by the way, runs from 7-10 May; I hope to see you there) . Those of you sensible enough not to let mint run loose in your flower beds will have

. Their fundraising target for 2010 is £3m.You don't have to wait for the summer to start visiting gardens. At this time of year there are marvellous snowdrop and early-spring flower collections to visit. This coming weekend you could visit gardens from Wiltshire

In the words of Benny Hill: "I'll never know how a rose can smell so sweet and pure, And hold its head up high when it's standing in manure!".Old Benny cannot have been much of a gardener (a statement borne out by the fact that he lived all his life

Garden Media Guild Awards) but above all he is an enthusiast.He follows in the footsteps of not only recent figures (the late Geoff Hamilton springs to mind) but of many of the great plant hunters. Have you ever grown Viburnum farreri? You should

, cleaning them off and spraying some oil around. There are certain tools without which I cannot cope and others which I hardly ever use. Among my favourites are:1. My small border fork and spade, which are perfect for planting and diddling around.2. A steel

It's RHS Chelsea Flower Show this week: the biggest and most famous show in the world (although Gardeners' World Live at the NEC from 16-20 June 2010 runs pretty close of course!).The tickets sold out very early but for those of you lucky enough