Chris and I spent a long weekend in Bordeaux in the south of France to celebrate 20 years since we first started dating. It’s a beautiful city on the banks of the Garonne river and the height of European romanticism. With stunning architecture and an abundance of vibrant restaurants, bars, cafes and shops. A city that melds classic with contemporary perfectly demonstrating that artistic edge continental Europe does so well.

As we walked the city streets we began to comment on the lush climbers casually growing up the beige limestone walls. Turning what would be a city of stone to a verdant oasis, filling streets with the scents of jasmine and honeysuckle - their flowers just beginning to open.

Broken fragments of terracotta pot or gutter were propped against many of the plant bases. Clearly residents are making an effort to protect and care for them. It was while commenting on these, we noticed many of the climbers were actually quite young.

That’s when it dawned on us: is this a recent effort to green the city? Planting climbers into defunct drains, pockets and cracks. Chris did a quick search online which confirmed it is. The city is attempting to increase biomass and the council will support house owners that want to turn their narrow pavement into a ‘crack garden’ with vines and other plants such as hollyhocks and figs. We looked back on Google Street view and many of the climbers we saw hadn’t been there five years ago.

Council officials can be booked to cut a planting pocket and fill it with starter soil. Presumably making sure the underlying soil is easily accessed by roots.

It added to our love for Bordeaux, to see so many homeowners and businesses actively planting and protecting these young plants growing in the most unlikely spots. Bordeaux has an excitement about it, a city full of energy and creativity. The fact plants are part of that drive makes it all the more cutting edge.

Around the old parts of town vibrant green leads the eye upward, enhancing the abundance of carved stone facades. It’s quite amazing how much biomass one climber can add to what would be an entirely lifeless stone street.

We loved the way many businesses were embracing the idea, I even saw one architect firm with wildflowers growing out of the tiny cracks between the pavement and building. Their climber had been allowed to trail over the door.

It all felt so free and a breath of fresh air. Many of the jasmine hadn’t opened their buds yet and we could only imagine the perfume through the summer months.

Practically, a few things struck us that are worth noting. First we didn’t see one damaged pavement from the roots or stems - not one! Even around the oldest, thickest wisteria that grew high enough to cover a three story building. Secondly, presumably the plants have ample soil and moisture beneath the stone paving. Bordeaux’s summer temperature is regularly in the thirties and soars into the forties. I assume the stone pavements and roads lock in moisture for the climbers, in addition to them being tolerant of heat. The city receives 950mm of rainfall on average per year, the majority in autumn and winter, making summer very dry. Yet the climbers and trees are healthy.

Climbers we spotted include:

• Evergreen star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides)

• Deciduous common jasmine (Jasminum officinale)

• Wisteria

• Grape vines (Vitis spp.)

• Many different honeysuckle cultivars (Lonicera spp.)

• Boston ivy (Parthenocissus spp.)

• Common ivy (Hedera spp.)

• Climbing hydrangea in one shaded spot

Because many are twining vines and not self-clinging, they are supported using metal vine eyes and wire. This allows people to create their own climbing network easily around stone features, doors and windows to frame the architecture.

These climbing plants of Bordeaux are an excellent reminder and showcase of what can be achieved with a postage stamp size piece of land and vertical surfaces. Climbers are incredibly easy to grow from a land the size of a side plate, and produce as much greenery as a tree. Producing flowers and even fruit.

In time, the climbers growing around the city will welcome wildlife back in. Every climbing plant adding to the available habitat and nectar. Not to mention cooling the city for residents.

Across the Garonne, away from the old town, we even noticed a new building with a large frame used to grow large climbers all the way up. Helping to create shade and cool the building within.

Thank you to the people of Bordeaux for such a fantastic reminder of the beauty of climbing plants. In recent years living walls with planting pockets have been a focus - we even had one in our old garden to house my collection of fern species - but I no longer believe these are practical nor sustainable. In terms of maintenance and ease, as Bordeaux proves, nothing beats a climber.

Part 2 of gardening in Bordeaux to come soon, please check back!

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When we first moved to Yorkshire we faced a bird flu outbreak in winter and I pointed out that the method of feeding birds was most likely a prime vector for the spread of the disease: bird feeders and bird baths. Things have moved on and the RSPB this week is advising to not artificially feed birds in summer due to the spread of another bird killing disease, trichomonosis. And if you leave out water, to wash bowls at least every day to stop the spread.

Greenfinches are one of the worst affected, seeing a 67% decline in average numbers recorded since 1979 (RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch). We’re lucky to have greenfinches and many other red list birds in our garden and I’m glad what we’ve been doing is now backed up by official recommendations from the RSPB.

So how can we help birds? I plan habitat-first gardens to provide shelter and food naturally and that’s what I practice in our garden (where the name Wild Way of gardening comes from). This includes seeds, fruit and importantly, abundant insects. It’s quite straight forward really, everyone can do it. It’s what happens naturally in the wild and we can replicate that in gardens. We can even enhance it, which is one of the great things about having our clever human minds.

Why are bird feeders and baths a risk for spreading disease?

Bird feeders and baths, though well intentioned, create an unnatural hot spot for many birds to visit a tiny area, causing the following problems:

1. An unnatural focal point of large quantities of food or a water bowl that sees birds feeding and drinking from the same spot again and again, mixing in each other’s poo and fluids, which is how a lot of bird diseases spread.

2. Lure birds out into the open so we can see them, which also means they’re more easily seen by predators and targeted because food and water is quite low. (Cats for instance receive a lot of hate - and yes there are often too many cats in one area - but quite often cats only catch sickly birds or those we’ve lured into the open with feeders and bird baths).

3. A short term solution. When people who feed birds move on, they take away a food source many birds have grown dependent on which can then lead to starvation.

4. Dropped food attracts rats close to our homes.

What can we do?

My advice for gardeners wanting to help birds is to:

• Grow plants and habitats that will feed, shelter and offer water for birds naturally. In small gardens you may need to join up with your neighbours for mixed habitat, e.g. you can each grow a different wild shrub or small tree, one garden may have a pond to serve a number of gardens.

• Clean bird baths daily or rely on a larger natural pond

• Clean nesting boxes in winter - but only take them down briefly to clean, then put them back up, birds can still shelter or examine them for nesting suitability through winter.

Key habitats to grow for birds

The main idea behind the Wild Way of gardening ethos is to provide food by thinking habitat-first for wildlife, growing habitat that is sustainable longterm, including:

• Small trees: for nesting, food, shade and a safe perch away from predators.

• Hedges / dense shrubs: really important for safe nesting, especially with spiky shrubs - also important for food.

• Herbaceous: primarily perennials but also self-sowing annuals and biennials, anything that produces seed and habitat for insects.

• Low grass: important for the likes of corvids and blackbirds that browse for worms.

• Keep dead stems standing: for the seeds birds eat but also for insects to shelter over winter for bird food either in winter or next year (Read full guide to chop and dropping stems in late-winter).

• Leaf litter: keep fallen leaves to support ground insects, molluscs and encourage worms into the leaf little. Birds will rummage through this for food in winter (Read full guide on keeping fallen leaves).

• Pond: a large water expanse is less likely to see disease spread than a small bird bath. As long as a pond has a shallow sloped side, birds can bathe and drink. Ponds also attract a large amount of insects that add to bird food (Read full ponds in garden ecosystems guide 🔒).

What do birds eat?

• Insects: overlooked but vital, almost all birds eat insects like moths, aphids, as well as molluscs, snails and slugs. The more insects your garden attracts, the more food for birds - a healthy garden ecosystem with lots of insects does not need extra bird feed. And this is true in winter too. A garden in winter may appear empty but aphids, caterpillars and other insects are around in large numbers in a healthy garden ecosystem.

• Fruit: small crab apples, berries, haws of hawthorn - almost all fruit is eaten by birds and many ripen at different points of the year for a slow release natural food.

• Seeds: birds will eat ripe seed, especially smaller garden birds including the many finches, tits, blackbirds and wrens.

15 plants for bird food and habitat

Our garden is a haven for birds even though we haven’t artificially fed our birds for five years. The populations here are currently stable. While our garden is large, what we have can be replicated everywhere (our old inner city garden was 5 x 6m). Below are the plants I’ve noticed are the most important and usable in small to medium size gardens.

1) Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

I’ve included hawthorn in the vast majority of my garden designs because I think it is extraordinarily beautiful and because it is excellent for wildlife. This smallish tree supports hundreds of insect species and is highly tolerant of pruning. Making it a beautiful candidate for a spiky dense hedge for nesting. Birds eat the insects all over it and the haws (its fruit) in winter. The haws are one of the last trees to ripen, making it an essential early winter snack for birds.

(Read full hawthorn design guide 🔒)

2) Crab apples (Malus sylvestris)

Another small tree I include in most of my designs is crab apple. The wild species is beautiful but cultivars all ripen at different times, giving birds a potential long period with a lot of fruit. I’ll cover my recommended crab apples in more detail in a future newsletter. Of course, crab apples are stylish, colourful and have lots of spring blossom for insects.

3) Holly (Ilex aquifolium)

Unfairly maligned among some gardeners, holly is excellent for wildlife. Its evergreen spiky nature makes one of the best natural habitats for hedgehogs and birds. In winter female plants have red berries loved by birds. These ripen toward mid-winter solstice. Holly can be clipped into a dense hedge too.

(Read full holly design guide 🔒)

4) Knapweed (Centaurea nigra)

Goldfinch lurve knapweed. If that’s not reason enough to grow it, I don’t know what is. They aren’t the only ones, most small birds will eat the seeds - our plants often have nothing left which is currently restricting their ability to self sow! Also great for attracting late-summer insects… yes, that birds eat. You get the picture now with insects so I’ll stop repeating that point.

(Read full knapweed design guide 🔒)

5) Ivy (Hedera helix)

Another much hated plant but I love ivy! Ivy is beautiful and once it grows tall enough vertically, it produces flowers for insects in summer followed by very late ripening black berries eaten by birds. Its dense evergreen nature makes it excellent shelter for birds and nesting sites.

6) Echinops spp.

I had dreams of a beautiful Piet Oudolf style winter garden of seedheads but no chance. Birds eat all of the seedheads in our garden and first to go is Echinops, any cultivar will do. No sooner are the seeds ripe, the seedheads vanish, gobbled by all of the birds.

7) Elderflower (Sambucus nigra)

Just pipping hawthorn to the post for most planted small tree in my garden designs is elderflower. I love, love, love its flowers and leaves. Which attract myriad insects, especially aphids, which tits patrol for. In late-summer to autumn its black berries are one of the first to be eaten by birds.

(Read full elderflower design guide 🔒)

8) Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum)

Teasel is one of my favourite designer plants, it also happens to produce a lot of seeds eaten by finch species. Easy and wonderful.

(Read full teasel design guide 🔒)

9) Blackberry

Ripening in the middle summer and continuing for a month or two, blackberry is an excellent bird supporting fruit. They’re tasty for us as well. Their flowers and leaves attract lots of insects.

(Read full blackberry design guide 🔒)

10) Raspberry

Summer raspberry crop in the first half of summer in one go, autumn raspberry crop from mid-summer until autumn. Good for us, good for birds. We grow enough for us and wildlife.

11) Red currant

One fruit I can’t beat the birds to, they sit on the plant unripe and we only know they are ready when they vanish. A cheeky blackbird chuckling at us from the hedge.

12) Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum)

One of our native wild scramblers, honeysuckle attracts a lot of moths - good bird and bat food. And it produces berries in summer for birds. They don’t last long.

13) Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia)

A lovely medium sized tree with creamy flowers followed by summer red berries for birds.

14) Thistles

All of the wild thistles produce seeds similar to knapweed eaten by birds. Ornamental thistles such as Cirsium produce the same and are a bit better behaved by not spreading as much.

15) Wild grasses

Not just for seeds but for insects that eat them - many moth and butterfly larvae eat the leaves. They also shelter or remain active in them during winter when birds may find and eat them. A mini meadow is ideal because it will provide lots of food for birds - even if the food isn’t immediately obvious.

16) Dandelion (Taraxacum spp.)

Finches, wrens and other small birds eat the seeds of dandelion clocks. I’ve also noticed they nibble the leaves. I really like the flowers of dandelions as well as the seedheads. Grown in grass the leaves are less noticeable, which is the bit people don’t like so much in gardens.

(Read full dandelion design guide 🔒)

Find out more

Please check out the RSPB website for more information and consider becoming a member to support the charity’s important work. As a member I recently had a day out at their Bempton Cliffs and it was an extraordinary experience.

I’ve also written more on this topic in this past article on feeding birds naturally.

I hope that has given you lots of food for thought, and perhaps even more natural food for birds!

I purposely didn’t include annual plants like sunflowers because while they are great, they require us to sow them. Whereas I am interested in self-supporting habitats. I also didn’t include large trees like oak because, while these are great and there are lots of big trees to help birds, I wanted to keep it practical for gardens.

Have I missed any? Which plants do you grow that produce food or insects for birds?

p.s. I’ve made this post free to help share my experience across gardens with as many people as quickly as possible at a point when I know many are worried about the new advice to not feed birds. I do have a £26/year paid subscription with extra guides if you are interested or want to help support my work. Thank you as ever.

Cowslip is one of Europe’s common native plants that saw a big decline in the UK post-World War II due to habitat destruction from ploughing grassland. These days in Yorkshire I see it mainly on steep grassy banks lining A-roads toward the east and north of the county. It’s far more common in the south of the UK.

It took me a few years in our garden to discover a single cowslip in our coppice where it almost certainly was planted by a previous owner. I left it for a couple of years to tough it out but decided in autumn to hoik it up to a less competitive spot in our garden.

I’m glad I did. I was able to easily divide that one plant into three. A few months later each division has already grown to full size, happily flowering in different spots of our garden.

Using cowslip in design

I’m planning to encourage the spread of cowslip in two key areas:

1. Garden: as one of our key low-growing spring plants to form a light yellow wash through our main garden.

2. Wilder area: primarily filled with native wildflowers, here I’ll let it grow in among the grass of the mini-meadow and woodland edge.

In both areas it grows alongside primrose, Primula vulgaris, with which it can hybridise to form something that looks like a cross between the two, called Primula vulgaris x veris. Not to be confused with oxslip, Primula elatior, which looks similar but is a rarer species native to East Anglia.

Cowslip will grow happily in pots and windowboxes as long as they don’t dry out. In fact, they are perfect for this in part-shade spots where they will grow in the same pot for years and years.

Because cowslips are quite small, like primroses, they are great spring flowers when everything in the garden is low, adding a little bright pop of colour. They are tough plants as long as they don’t completely dry out for long periods of time - most of the UK is fine.

Able to tolerate a fair amount of shade, they’re well suited to growing in competitive wild plant communities as well as designed ones in gardens. Taller summer plants can grow over the top of them without affecting them - very useful!

Propagating cowslip

It’s super easy to grow more cowslip. Dig up and divide plants (not from the wild) by hand - as discussed above, they come apart into little pieces easily. I find their clumps, like primroses, are actually dense patches of closely growing separate plants. They will also self sow if you have a number of plants - they are not self-fertile and need partner plants, which is why our single cowslip hadn’t self sown by itself.

Is cowslip edible?

Yes similar to primrose.

Is cowslip good for wildlife?

Yes. Like all early guaranteed flowers, it serves an important role for the first emerging insects, especially bumblebees. Long tongued butterflies and moths will also seek it out.

It has a particularly important role for the duke of burgundy butterfly, Hamearis lucina, which depends on the plant for its larvae. According to Buglife, eggs of this rare and declining butterfly are laid exclusively on the underside of primrose and cowslip leaves. Growing a patch could potentially help them, especially if you live near the main strongholds in southern England, the Lake District and Yorkshire.

Continue learning with a Wild Way paid subscription…

Wishing you a very happy long weekend filled with flowers and chocolate! To help inspire you, I thought I’d send a roundup email of useful articles filled with spring gardening ideas.

I know I’m often saying you don’t have to do all the garden tasks thrown at us but I’ll level with you, this is the weekend where we do have give a burst of energy to sow seeds, divide plants and make plant moves.

Ground is still wet, rain will still come and summer’s dry is long enough away for plants to get established if we act now.

I’m going to set you three simple challenges for this weekend:

1. Find a plant to divide and spread around you garden for free

2. Look for seedlings of a plant and move those seedlings around

3. Pause with a cup of tea and try to spot different insects

Nothing onerous but good for our hearts and minds.

Most of the plants in our garden have been grown for free by dividing. This is the process of cutting one plant into two or more pieces and then growing them as separate plants. Over the course of five years I’ve grown hundreds of plants in this way saving us a thousand pounds or more. It’s also a fast way of growing because divisions are usually fully grown plants ready to roll. Division is done on herbaceous perennial plants, the ones that live from year to year and generally grow larger with more growing points.

How to divide plants

Read more

The temperature isn’t the only thing rising in our garden. With spring comes the start of a steaming hot orgy that lasts for months. This morning, mist hangs in the mild air as greenfinch and goldfinch sing to their lovers. Bumblebees stock up on pollen to take back to their love dens. Sex is on all of our minds.

In May my partner Chris and I will have been together for twenty years. We first met in December 2005 at a friend’s house party on Abbeville Road in Clapham South, London. I remember his dark brown Italian eyes, smooth lips, muscular body and open friendliness - but mostly those eyes. In hindsight I suspect it was love at first sight, not just lust, though at the time I rejected that idea for fear of being hurt. We chatted but ultimately I headed off with a friend to see Girls Aloud at G-A-Y when it was in the legendary Astoria, since demolished. Part of me wanted to stay, drawn to him like a magnet, but back then I had priorities.

Months later, I kept thinking of him, and the same friend who hosted the house party set me and Chris up on a date. Our friend organised dinner at his but mysteriously wasn’t there, his housemate let me and Chris in. While we waited we watched Scully being abducted by aliens in the X-Files, dated special effects making us laugh, and talked in the living room until our mutual friend arrived. A few dates happened, Chris persevering with my frustrating shyness back then. He kissed me in Astoria on the central stage with flashing lights and the dancing throng around us. It was a moment in slow motion. Eventually, some weeks later, at the end of a night out in the Two Brewers in Clapham, we went home together and that was that. The next morning my housemates caught a glimpse of his muscular gym body in his boxers and when he left, we all stood open mouthed at my luck. One said “he is f**cking hot” and we all laughed as I said “I know” in disbelief.

Time flew on, as it does. We rented a flat, begged our landlady to let us have a cat, and then were lucky to buy the flat from them. It was our home, where we lived and loved each other - somehow feeling out of place as adults with these real adult things. It’s where my love of gardening returned, entwined with my life with Chris - or Topher as I always call him, unless I’m grumpy. The thing about Topher is, he’s supportive and encouraging in a way I’d only experienced before with my family. Others had laughed at or quashed my love of gardening and wildlife, whereas Chris came with me to the garden centres and helped carry the plants. He defended and was proud of what I did.

During the height of my obsession to learn to be a better gardener, revising night after night for exams, I saw Monty Don advertise a new series of his show Big Dreams, Small Spaces. I applied on behalf of both of us to have Monty mentor the revamp our garden. Part of me wanted Monty to love what we came up with, another part wanted to do my bit for the LGBTQ+ community as a gay couple to show our relationship. We both felt some kind of obligation to do our bit for future generations to say “yes, it’s OK to be in a relationship like ours” in the way braver generations before had done for us.

Due to the show’s ‘big garden reveal’ date landing at the start of September, from that moment the planting centred on Topher’s birthday. I’ve planned gardens around that date ever since. But our garden is filled with my love and desire for him beyond that. Although Topher leaves me to get on with the gardening as I want, I’ve always thought of the garden as jointly ours - back in London and here in Yorkshire. He is constantly in my mind, constantly present and constantly a part of it.

I’ve never particularly thought of being gay or queer as part of my identity - although it obviously is - because I spend all of my time thinking about gardening, wildlife and art. Those are my identity and infinitely more interesting than who I have sex with. And yet, I am gay, I am queer I suppose, and all of those parts of me, including my sexuality, are infused with our garden. Gardens are gardens because we make them and like it or not, who we are - from who we live with to our politics, views and actions - are part of our gardens whether we like it or not. There’s no escaping it. Which is a sign of gardens being art as much as any other.

Being gay and growing up as part of the gay world - as we thought of it back in my youth - has shaped who I am and for the better. I am so thankful that I am gay and could grow up in that world. A world that encouraged and sought equality, acceptance of difference and a progressive mindset. “I am what I am, I am my own special creation. So come take a look, give me the hook, or the ovation” sung Gloria Gaynor. That was my interpretation of it, that’s what I took from it, standing up for what is right. Celebrating desire and love as much as creativity, equality and individuality.

Sexuality in gardens is a huge and fascinating topic and yet we shy away from it. Talking about sex is still considered crass by some and yet, as plants and wildlife remind us in summer, it is a beautiful part of who we are. Being naked with one another consensually is one of the more innocent and disarming moments in life. Most people enjoy sex or the feelings of love and being loved. Whether we are gay, straight or other, we will all have experienced feelings toward other people in gardens at some point. The evidence is everywhere in the arts.

I read The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng a long time ago, a sexually charged and complex love story centred around a masterpiece garden called Yugiri in the mountains. Its story has stayed with me for the aftermath and trauma of Japanese occupation of Malaya in WWII but primarily for its depiction of a lifelong and passionate love reflected in the slow, tender and emotive creation of a garden. It tapped into something deep within me as a human and as a gardener.

Film director Emerald Fennel is currently making headlines with her sexually charged take on Wuthering Heights. Coincidentally the original story is set across the moor from our garden, a love story as turbulent and unstoppable as the wilderness its set in. Not a garden but to me it taps into the same emotive link we have with love and outside spaces. Fennel’s previous film, Saltburn, is full of lustful scenes of sun soaked naked flesh in the garden of the manor in which its set.

Artist David Hockney’s famous early work celebrates lovers naked in gardens. Gardens remain a subject of his work today, and though they lack the explicit sexuality of before, they are still charged with excitement. There are countless other examples of our fascination and exploration of the human body and sex in all forms of art, and you’ll notice the more you look, this is often linked to the garden setting. Gardens and sex are part of individual stories.

Twenty years since we first met and I love Chris more than ever and still feel my heart beat faster when I think of his eyes and body. Our garden represents so many things, especially my lifelong mission for equality and nature. It also represents years of daily thoughts about Chris and discussion with him. Of the inspiration he gives me to keep going. It is a physical and living representation of our relationship and lives together.

At this time of year I’m excited each morning to get out of bed and check seed trays for germination and emerging perennials in the garden. Gardening is such a positive addition to my life - even if it’s a single pot of tomato seeds on a windowsill, it is fun. Everyday something to look forward to.

I’m also going easy on myself this year. I’ve found that because I write about growing food, I’ll admit I feel so much pressure to grow everything imaginable. If I’m honest, that can take the fun out of what should be an enjoyable pastime. This year I’m trying to reclaim the fun even if it means I’m not growing ten million different cultivars to share in magazines and on social media.

Right now however I am concentrating on jumpstarting the allotment.

Dear deers, please vacate the allotment

First on our project list is keeping animals to their allotted areas. I love the wild roe deer and they have free reign of the meadow but growing food is challenging enough without them helping themselves before us.

I’ll admit I lost my veg buzz last year because the deer and pheasants kept setting things back significantly. Up until then, the deer weren’t much of a problem on the plot. Now deer chomp most plants and pheasants dig up potatoes. So last week our friend Graham and I began deer fencing the allotment to deter the fluffy-eared-ones.

Our two chickens are adorably cute but they are also allotment hooligans. They cause havoc in freshly sown seed beds, these higher fences will stop them too.

As for pheasants, answers on a postcard. I ended up netting lots of crops last year, which isn’t ideal because it adds an extra job and a barrier to picking crops.

Polytunnel shenanigans

Down in the polytunnel I need to talk about wrens. My first batch of lettuces were growing nicely until a clever wren figured out how to hop in above the door. Nipping the top off every seedling! I’m starting again with ‘Red Salad Bowl’, green ‘Till’ and speckled 'Flashy Butter Oak Bicolour Oakleaf’. Old compost bags have been duly stuffed into the gap - barriers are the best way of separating wildlife from crops.

Germinating in the ground of the polytunnel are pea ‘Meteor’, radish ‘French Breakfast’, turnips ‘Goldana’ and ‘Tokyo Cross’, and beetroot. My plan is to grow these fast crops undercover while we sort the deer fencing. We should have eaten these vegetables by the time the tomatoes get planted in the poly in May.

Alongside veg seedlings I’m propagating lots of tomatoes from runners and some wild primrose plugs to a larger size before they go out (shown above).

I’m also readying a veritable army of perennial flowers for our main garden to inject loads of colour into it. Last year I grew three different coloured hardier penstemon from seed and divided more geum ‘Totally Tangerine’. In recent weeks I’ve been dividing Helenium, Astrantia, Geranium and others for more free plants.

The challenge I’m finding with a bigger garden (I know, first world problems) is that there are so many plants I’m not sure where I can fit all of these yet! I’m waiting for the garden to grow a little to make sure I avoid planting on top of existing plants.

I don’t want to wait too long though, I need them in the ground while it’s still wet and raining to form deep roots for summer. I won’t need to water them in if it’s still wet.

Outdoor propagation station

Directly outside the polytunnel is the table I move seedlings to when they’re a little larger, or start here if fully hardy. The wren doesn’t care about this lot!

Lots of the above plants are cuttings, seedlings and divisions from last year left outdoors in peat free compost all winter. I know people talk a lot about nutrition of peat free compost but as you can see from all of the plants I’m sharing, everything is growing just fine. And I haven’t fed them at all yet!

The benefit of a raised table like this is it keeps vulnerable veg seedlings away from slugs and snails until the plants are larger to tolerate nibbles.

Carefree tomatoes

Tomatoes are part of my chill out plan. I only just sowed ours yesterday - on the heat mat in the background of the above photo - and this year I’m growing just three cultivars. One cherry ‘Artisan Bumblebee Mix’ (in red and yellow), one salad ‘Gardeners Delight’ and one beefsteak‘Brandy Boy’.

I plan to give tomato vines twice as much space as normal to receive more light. I suspect it will increase yield per plant - more tomatoes for even less effort.

Other annual veg I’m sowing this week are mangetout and dill. I’ll also plant out the potatoes at some point.

Perennial payoff

Another reason I’m feeling relaxed this spring is because in recent years I’ve gone crazy planting perennial crops in a number of different edible plant communities. These are coming through strongly without me having to do very much at all. Which is brilliant news.

I have a range of beds including the above low-ish growing leaf bed, a larger bulky crop bed by the shed, tonnes of fruit bush communities and a number of woodland edible areas under fruit and nut trees. I find it a fun way of growing food because of their reliability, planning them as I would any ornamental bed. More on this through the year!

Annual crops

One of my favourite beds on the allotment is the one I use for salads each year. It’s only a few metres in size and always easy to maintain - though the deer decimated it last year.

I’ve hoe-d the salad bed once and will give it a second pass next time it’s dry. Then I will sow carrots, radish, beets, Florence fennel and plant out the lettuce. I won’t sow spring onions because we have lots of perennial onions that taste similar.

I do grow annuals in the perennial beds too, a polyculture, but crop rows exist for a reason. In the annual bed I plant in rows for speed and reduced effort when it comes to weeding and harvesting. Hoeing between rows is a doddle and it’s easy to nip up a row picking leaves.

Further reading

• Aggregate gardens: don’t give up on soil yet (Financial Times) - in the paper on Saturday or access this pay walled article by going through Google News search

• Why is low maintenance a dirty term? (Gardens Illustrated) - my new column in April’s mag, out next week

• 10 best fruit and veg for less hassle and higher yields (The Guardian) - my column with tips for making your plot more efficient

Have a wonderful time in the garden this weekend!

In spring it’s possible to catch the migration of thousands of wildlife photographers arriving at RSPB Bempton Cliffs. Lumbered with approximately 90%* of all long lens cameras in the UK (*just a guess). The grey cliffs of Yorkshire also happen to see the nesting of many important sea and land birds.

Setting out on the long drive from Hebden Bridge to the coast, an ethereal haze softens the bright yellow sun and turns the distant hills and trees a milky blue. The coast is my goal and it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get there. I need a break from routine to shake my head out of stress and into a better mindset.

As I step through the RSPB welcome centre, I still haven’t seen the sea despite driving toward it for miles. Here the cliffs are so high and today the distant horizon too hidden. I skirt the grassland first and a kindly fellow photographer points to a goldcrest which I watch fly from bush to bush but am not fast enough to photograph.

Strolling toward the main event, the sea finally comes into view and I breathe out deeply. The top of the cliffs are lined with day tripping wildlife lovers walking along the miles of reserve. When I finally reach the edge I meet a breathtaking scene. A 100m drop straight down with birds soaring or resting with occasional echoing calls.

Razorbill

First to catch my eye are what look like a pair or pengiuns but are in fact razorbills (Alca torda). They preen each other lovingly and dance with affection.

Another pair sleep nearby. Looking up on occasion to the humans watching them. Their black and white markings impossibly clean and crisp.

Gannet

One gannet fairly close to the path obliging poses for my camera (Morus bassanus). I’m struck by how large they are and a noticeboard of life size images puts these huge birds into scale. I imagine its near metre wingspan if it were next to me.

With striking pale blue eyes and bulbous head, some were out fishing and others collecting plant material for nests.

It’s a wonder how the birds perch and sleep so high on these towering cliffs.

Nests of the birds line strata of the rock faces. For thousands of years they will have done this, making use of the rock feature itself formed over billions of years. How entwined everything on Earth is.

Kittiwake

Friendly looking gull family member, the kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) seemed sleepy. I love the name, kittiwake.

Not to be unfair to regular seagulls we’re familiar with - they can’t help their faces look mean - but the kittiwake look so gentle. And they certainly seem quieter and less raucous.

Common linnet

Around the reserve were many more species, including the endangered linnet (Linaria cannabina) nesting in the many areas of scrub. This is a female, the males are brightly coloured.

In someways, while I adore puffins - one of my favourite birds - part of me is glad they weren’t nesting yet. I would almost certainly have paid the gannets and kittiwake less attention. And what an oversight that would have been.

I decide to head off, full of wonder from my close encounter with these birds in this otherworldy spot. I’ll save the owls, puffins and other species for another visit soon.

Join and support the RSPB to help conserve reserves like this.

Today is the spring equinox, which means the Earth’s orbit is at a point where the planet’s tilt now aims the northern hemisphere increasingly at the sun. As a result, from today day length grows longer than night until the summer solstice. Shorter night length and warmth triggers plants into active growth transforming the countryside and our gardens.

It’s sending everything into a spring frenzy, including us gardeners. This week I almost spent more time outdoors than I did in. I want to be outside for every minute I can, planting, growing, photographing birds and listening to their song. Watching them watching me.

Dunnock’s are prepping their nests while our garden borders are starting to rise, quickly covering the cut plant material.

I enjoy the hues and tone of the pale straw coloured stems against glaucous allium and daffodil leaves, warmed by the pink of pulmonaria. Set off by emerging primrose yellow daffodils and vibrant first leaves of waking perennials. It’s all about to change dramatically.

One of the areas I’ve written about most is the patch immediately next to our patio. I stopped weeding this area a couple of years ago to let the plants do all the work. And it has worked. Here the plants I’ve added are outcompeting creeping buttercup, couch grass and even nettles. I’ve since stopped weeding almost altogether in the rest of the garden.

I’m overjoyed with the pink pulmonaria I’ve been dividing and spreading. The colour doesn’t show strongly in the photos because it’s intentionally subtle, but in real life it’s changed our garden. Washing it with a base of warm pink all through spring. And even more exciting, various bumblebee species have been all over them...

I had been worried that bees prefer blue flowered pulmonaria but those concerns have gone. This week I’ve seen queens of white tailed, buff, early and possibly garden bumblebees.

Below our main garden, around the polytunnel, is the more shaded wilder garden. Here I am only planting wildflowers and sparingly spring bulbs. It’s mainly about wildflowers. There were already lots of daffodils I didn’t have the heart of desire to remove. And I love their brightness at this time of year. Around them the primroses are beginning to flower.

Narcissus ‘Tête-à-tête’ is always a little joy in various spots.

Noticeably, in the last two days, leaf buds have burst open in the sunshine and warmth. Above hazel and below lichen encrusted hawthorn.

Pussy willow has burst its buds too, bringing its wonder of pale yellow that entices bumblebees in their thousands.

It’s easy to overlook some flowers, such as the female flowers of hazel and larch. On the larch these are called strobili, below is a photo of the neon pink pineapple shaped female structure. These become the cones. Larch and hazel are monoecious, meaning they have both male and female reproductive organs on the same plant.

Greenfinch in particular have been keeping me company, alongside common finch. The greenfinch have always been here but this year I’ve made an effort to notice them. They’ve been noticing me back...

I won’t tell you to get busy in the garden, enjoy spring equinox today and what looks like a sunny weekend ahead. Perhaps spend some time outdoors looking at nature, planting some things if you wish. Most of all, relax and have fun.

p.s. if you would like to support my work and deep dive into advanced garden design ideas this spring, please consider becoming a paid subscriber for just £26/year. Here is my latest guide for paid subscribers…

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Human caused climate change has been altering weather patterns for some decades. Here in Europe it is making drought in summer more likely and longer for much of the continent, as well as winters milder and wetter. This is particularly true of the British Isles where we live, smack bang in the middle here in West Yorkshire.

This has big implications for wild habitats, farming and gardens. In gardens, many people are exploring possible options to build climate resilience with techniques and ideas for drought coming to the fore. This includes the use of aggregates - in the form of sand, gravel and grits - to help lock in moisture, and land sculpting to build habitat or conditions to help insects and other wildlife. As well as plants that are both drought and wet tolerant.

This is all really useful and important, though I worry about significant human alterations to habitats and land as being seen as the main solution. While we know they can and do help wildlife and achieve resilience to extremes in weather, they almost always have other consequences.

In gardens, everything we do has an impact, even introducing a single new plant. That doesn’t mean we can’t do anything, we can and should, it just means we have to try and be smarter. Understanding exactly what we do and the potential impact we have on wildlife, and trying to document it to help future generations.

Here in our garden, early on I decided not to radically alter the land or existing framework of planting. Partly because I unexpectedly found myself attracted to the layers of story from previous owners, and my fear that major land or habitat change would have impacts on what was clearly already a nature rich place.

Our garden has seen some big changes in the past, the meadow has been ploughed, had heavy fertilisers or potentially weedkiller sprayed on it in the last hundred years. The species mix is too different to the adjacent unmodified grasslands, it lacks diversity in plants. And there were huge land drains dug and installed in Victorian times, stone quarried and a woodland planted (which we call the coppice). Originally it was probably woodland, wetland or even moor - but that was hundreds, if not thousand of years ago. Wildlife now knows our area as mixed woodland and grassland.

Every time we make a big change to an area of land we have to be aware that we are likely resetting the baseline of wildlife. The baseline being the wildlife that has settled into that habitat since major change. This is the main reason changes to our garden have been quite slow, the slower the better with changes to gardens because we need to monitor extremely carefully how we are altering the biodiversity. Unfortunately ‘slow change’ doesn’t fit into current gardening trends and lifestyles. And doing nothing at all to maintain the status quo certainly isn’t exciting. Often slow isn’t possible during building work and renovations.

But in any case, that is what I’m exploring in our garden. Slow plant additions to improve habitats, with a plan to make them as stable as possible for the decades ahead. In most areas of our large garden, I am actually doing nothing but maintaining what’s there and monitoring. I am doing all of this in a way that I also find aesthetically pleasing. I do believe we can support wildlife while also including our own style preferences. And I’m not saying the other methods are wrong or should stop, we need them all.

I am trying to document everything in as much detail as one person can, making records and sharing my notes with you all. We can all compare our gardens and learn together.

Area one: main garden

• Size: approx 250 square metres - the size of an allotment - large to me but apparently the average in the UK.

• Conditions: full sun south facing, sloped, highly biodiverse. Soil about 1m silt and clay loam over heavy clay and then bedrock. It can dry out almost completely in midsummer during long drought.

• Baseline: when I arrived it was largely lawn surrounded by mixed hedging, some trees and bedding down two sides.

• Change: I expanded the beds on the right and added a matching one on the left, I kept a reasonably large lawn path down the middle. I feel I can take an already wildlife friendly garden even further with an even more biodiverse and stable plant community. Removing some less useful plants while adding many other species. I haven’t altered the soil except for covering areas of the lawn initially with cardboard and a thin 2-3cm layer of peat free compost. Though I am not playing down the fact changing the lawn to other plants does in itself alter the soil biome.

• Management: there are a lot of serious thug plants in here like ground elder, three cornered leek, creeping buttercup, couch grass and stinging nettles. In recent years I have almost stopped weeding entirely. I do cut back and pull out nettles in some areas, as well as any rose or bramble seedlings that sneak in. Otherwise I am just trying to outgrow stuff. I don’t add any brought in mulch, I don’t water established plants at all - and often not new plants, I don’t feed or add compost mulch, I don’t support plants. I cut back everything in late-winter leaving the clippings as the mulch. Including the hedge clippings.

• Plants: mix of wildlife supporting cultivated plants and native wildflowers.

• Of interest: I am exploring increasing organic matter in and over the soil using only the plants and their clippings or natural leaf litter. I’m interested to see if this, alongside plant choices, increases drought resilience.

Area two: wilder garden

Size: 250sqm approximately, with a longer narrow bit beyond.

Conditions: directly under the main garden and has the same conditions with areas of full sun but with lots more native trees creating many areas of part to dense dry shade.

Baseline: when we arrived it has the existing trees that were planted, one long side of existing and old mixed native hedging, rough grass, lots of nettles, bramble and other. There are patches of introduced snowdrops, daffodils, fritillary, primrose and a few fruit trees. Which I’ve left.

Changes and plants: I haven’t removed any plants or added or changed the soil at all here. I have added a new daffodil cultivar, a few more fritillary and spread around the snowdrops. Apart from that, everything else I am adding here has been native wildflowers - and that’s my core focus.

Management: I mow paths and might pull out the odd nettle through summer. Then in autumn I have been cutting back the grassy areas and removed the clippings. I’ll adjust this over the years as wildflowers establish.

Of interest: this area leans more into a wild habitat but is still cultivated. I haven’t dug out beds or covered areas to create them. Instead I am adding wildflowers into dense grass and nettles to see how they compete. I haven’t really thought of a good way to describe this area except calling it ‘wilder’, wilder but not quite wild!

Area three: mini meadow

Size: about 5m x 6m

Conditions: full sun grassland that does dry out in summer.

Baseline: when we arrived it was a small triangle corner of the meadow where previous owners have introduced native wildflowers. Not all native to our area but they are used heavily by insects making them important today. There is no yellow rattle here.

Change: none. I haven’t touched this area at all. There is perhaps more bramble on the sides.

Plants: some key plants are two species of bedstraw, knapweed, ox-eye daisy, musk mallow and field scabious as well as the grasses seen across the meadow.

Of interest: the thing I find interesting about this corner is that I literally do nothing to it. The corner can’t fit the tractor so it doesn’t get mowed by the farmer, I don’t mow it. So the plant community lives and dies itself each year. Deer nibble the wildflowers but only eating the flower heads of field scabious. It is essentially as low maintenance as it comes. This year I may have to pull out some bramble to prevent them taking over and shading it all. The wildflowers have good and bad years. Last year was good, winter was mild and right now there appear to be more wildflower plants. All despite me not cutting back or removing plant material. Interestingly it has no yellow rattle or other hemi-parasitic plant.

Area four: main meadow

Size: approx 2 acres

Conditions: largely full sun free draining slope with the same loam over clay and shallow bedrock. Some tiny pockets of wet from leaking ground drains.

Baseline: heavily modified upland grassland from past management with stronger, taller grasses and lower biodiversity than adjoining grasslands.

Change: I moved the cut date back from June/July, to mid-August as recommended by conservationists I spoke to. I have also planted some wildflowers at the top using seeds sourced from elsewhere around the meadow to try and increase their numbers. The previous owners only cut the meadow in the last few years they were here without grazing it. We did try grazing it as well but have settled back into a single cut without grazing. This seems to be more effective here, as the previous owners told us - I should have listened.

Plants: I am trying to change this meadow as little as possible except to try and increase the number of late-season wildflowers to increase biodiversity while being extremely careful to also increase the early season species. It’s a balance. I am aware of the grassland fungi and other species that are also part of this mix, which is why I am going extremely slowly and carefully here. There is yellow rattle and eyebright, it’s the latter I would like to try and increase based on evidence I’ve seen elsewhere locally.

Of interest: a distinctly average field for plant and insect biodiversity that I am hoping to re-balance. I’m focusing on specific plant species in different areas, so there are actually a variety of different plant communities within this same field. But largely, I’m not doing anything except maintaining and improved management plan. A bit less exciting than instant meadow makeovers but I think the slow approach on a habitat this large and important is critical.

That’s a whistle stop tour of some of our mainly ornamental/wildlife areas. I’ll explore each of these in more detail this year and I will cover the food producing habitats and plant communities in a future newsletter - I find them very exciting.

Is climate resilience in existing soils alone possible? Perhaps not, we’ll see.

Hopefully you found that useful. I’ll share more about the progress of each area as they continue to grow.

If you look at the above picture, what do you notice?

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Snowdrops and crocus are starting to finish and daffodils are well on their way to having their moment. Early sprouting broccoli is almost ready for harvest and the first leaves of crops to forage have emerged. Spring is here and for the gardener, it’s time to get busy.

Ready, steady, wait… then sow!

When March arrives it’s time for every gardener to get organised about sowing seeds. Not everything needs to be sown right away, in fact many plants are best reserved for another month or two. But some seeds do need to be sown by around mid-March.

Starting now also helps you spread out the workload by sowing a little at a time. I generally sow a few things every few days throughout spring, rather than in one big session, though you can do that too. Think of the spring March to May months as your core sowing period with the rest of summer and autumn for occasional top ups, especially to keep veggies coming.

During March I start with lettuce and other hardy salad crops, such as beetroot, radish and turnip. If the night temperatures are consistently above 5C you can sow outside, though at the start of this month it’s probably safer to sow seeds in trays of peat free compost under the cover of a polytunnel, greenhouse, coldframe or on a windowsill.

Perennial edibles such as wild rocket, globe artichoke, asparagus and thyme can all be sown now. As can annual flowers including nasturtium, cosmos and chamomile, and perennial flowers including astrantia, penstemon and cephalaria. I recommend sowing all of these undercover to avoid spring frost, even if they are hardy, and because some seeds need warmth to germinate. Wildflowers are less fussy and can be sown in trays undercover or outside, such as field scabious, ragged robin and musk mallow.

You can start sowing brassicas now, though I tend to wait until April or even May for most of them. Spring cabbage is worth sowing early. Brassicas are hardy and can be sown without heat. The reason I wait until April for Brussel sprouts, sprouting broccoli and kale is because they grow quickly in warmer weather and then have a long growing season all summer anyway, cropping in winter or the following spring. You don’t gain much from sowing early.

In our polytunnel, because I don’t plant tomatoes, aubergines and chillies into its soil until May, I’m using the sheltered space for an early crop of radish, beetroot, peas, broadbeans and turnips. I sowed these into the ground of the polytunnel in recent weeks. They will crop in our polytunnel before the tomatoes need to be planted.

Speaking of tomatoes, I’ve found the sweet spot for sowing these is the last week of March or early April. This is because tomato plants grow so quickly when young, if light levels aren’t strong or long enough, they can stretch and become etiolated. Therefore, I’ve found it much better to sow tomatoes later when days are longer. The tomatoes then grow strongly and overtake any weaker earlier sowings anyway.

A heat mat or heated propagator can help speed up germination. I generally remove seedlings from this as soon as I see their leaves to avoid leggy growth.

Be mindful of damping off, which is a soil borne disease caused by a number of different pathogens that can kill young seedlings. It usually happens in trays of seedlings when the compost is too wet and/or cold. Lack of air circulation contributes, especially if seedlings are overcrowded or grown indoors without air flow.

To avoid damping off, sow seedlings a little later in the month when temperatures are warmer, avoid overcrowding and encourage airflow with a fan or open window. If you struggle, wait until April and sow outdoors in a sheltered spot. Raising seedlings up on tables rather than cold floors helps - this also reduces slugs, snails and mice eating things.

Potatoes I plant in late-March. Rather than dig trenches, these days I tend to use a bulb planter or trowel to plant potatoes in rows with about 10cm of soil above them. I plant a small number of new potatoes and some red skinned roasters - the red skin cultivars are more resistant to underground slugs.

Don’t sow French beans, runner beans yet, nor the cucurbits, squash, pumpkin, courgette, cucumber, gherkin. Wait until late-April or May for these because they need more warmth and are not frost tolerant. A common mistake is to sow these in March and they die on cold spring days.

Grow new plants from division and cutting

Now is the time to divide plants that can be. Dig up and slice the crown and roots into two or more pieces using a spade or teasing apart with a garden fork. Rhubarb, day lily, hosta, astrantia, persicaria, geranium, pulmonaria, and many more perennials can be divided.

Early spring is prime time because it’s still wet, it’s warming up and the plants are beginning active growth. This means less chance of rot and more chance of success. Divide too late in spring and their root systems can be too established and it doesn’t give enough time to form new roots to make them drought resistant in summer.

Dahlia cuttings can also be taken now by nipping off a shoot with a piece of tuber using a sharp knife. Pot into peat free compost on a warm windowsill or heat mat covered with a transparent lid to maintain humidity. They will soon root.

I would hold off on other cuttings until brighter weather, unless you know the plants are very hardy and easy to root, such as kale.

It’s also a good time to buy new plants and either plant them out or grow them on a bit in bigger pots of peat free compost. I buy most plants small and pot some of these up to grow into bigger plants for a few months before planting out.

Crops to harvest

If you planned ahead last year you will have a nice crop of chard, early sprouting broccoli and kale growing on your plot. If you don’t have these crops this year, it’s well worth planning for next spring. Sow them at some point in March or April.

From early March, as the weather improves, the first leaves of forageable crops appear too. Rhubarb stems grow, wild garlic leaves are just nudging above soil, hairy bittercress is already flowering and sorrel has lots of young leaves.

Wildlife to spot

Wildlife is so busy in March - hop outside to listen to the dawn chorus - that I’ll save it for another newsletter but one thing you will spot now is frog and toad spawn. When this happens, you know spring has arrived!

Do what you enjoy

While there are other tasks to think about in the garden in March, such as boring tidying, I have always prioritised growing more plants over such things. This is because plants do most of the work for us and the more we grow, the more we can stuff into our gardens to hide and distract from any ‘mess’. Prioritising tidying and weeding over growing is, in my view, a mistake.

Don’t ever feel guilty for not doing something in your garden when you see me post. I would much rather everyone chills out, has a cup of tea and only do stuff when you feel like it. Never worry about gardening. I post because I enjoy writing about it, it’s always a suggestion, never an order!

Remember, gardening is a flexible beast and while I do things one way, you may prefer another, especially with sowing dates. I always recommend trying stuff out, if it doesn’t work, you learn, if it does, you learn.

Further reading - my new column!

• 10 of the best fruit and vegetables to plant now for a hassle-free harvest (The Guardian)

• Less, it turns out, is still more - my first Final Say column (Gardens Illustrated)

Have fun growing everyone!

I love daisies - I love them a lot. Filled with magic, romanticism and folklore, they can also be highly stylish. Easy to grow in all manner of locations, you can have a lot of fun with daisies!

Need to know info about Bellis perennis

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This week we’ve had a few glorious days that have felt like spring. At times the sun has come out and I’ve been warm enough to cast aside my jacket in a spring delirium.

I’m not the only one, the dawn chorus has begun for us giving me a euphoric feeling. Especially as I walk around and see all of the plants racing to grow leaves and buds.

In our wilder area at the bottom of our garden below our polytunnel the primroses and daffodils are about to pop - going from zero to flower-hero within days.

I’ve taken the moment to spread clumps of snowdrops around in flower, which you can see in the above photo (the single ones). This is much easier because I can see what I’m doing as I arrange them. From just two small patches of snowdrops I have now begun to smother our entire garden!

In the main garden the same is happening but the clumps I’ve been dividing over the last five years have really taken hold. The impact in person is a garden filling with snowdrops. I’ve been dividing and planting them in the visible gaps ready for next year.

Here the pink pulmonaria I’ve divided from a single plant is beginning to flower across the entire garden - we must have at least 15 established clumps now. All of this for free!

I took the opportunity to chop and drop the spent perennial stems from last year, leaving them on the ground. If you look at the above photo closely you’ll see shoots of geranium and other plants already growing through and covering last year’s stems.

Personally I am feeling the spring excitement more than ever - perhaps I always feel like this and forget? I mentioned euphoria and that’s what it is. My mood is feeling the lift from all of the thousands of plants and animals.

And it’s partly to do with the joy of creativity too, the fact I have had a hand in choosing the colours and feel of the garden habitat. The pink of the pulmonaria is my favourite right now. It’s so warm and, I guess, exotic feeling against the chill of winter.

All of the above is a new planting area except for the dense patch of snowdrops on the top left. The rest used to be lawn. Aside from an initial cardboard and compost layer to kill the grass, I haven’t weeded this. Instead I have planted into it using the concept of plant vigour (discussed in this paid lesson). I have pulled out the odd plant or torn some leaves to let light in, but hardly at all, and not enough to call it ‘weeding’. It’s working very nicely.

While this spring weather undoubtedly signals the turn of the season - the plants and animals feel it too - we are still likely to see temperatures plunge again. So hold off on sowing most seeds just yet, wait until mid-March for a little more warmth and a little more light.

Instead, when the sun shines this week, head outside and enjoy it. Lift your face to warm in the sun and soak in the sound of the birds.

Some timely guides for spring inspiration…

p.s. I should have an article on easy edibles to grow in The Guardian gardening section on Saturday and online

p.p.s I have two big announcements to share this year and the first is coming next week!

What I love about the end of winter, on the cusp of the growing season, is that gardens are at their lowest and barest. This allows us to take a good close look at what surprises and treats may be waiting for us.

This week I would like you to go on a treasure hunt for free plants and other natural gold in your garden. Here’s what to look for...

• Seedlings of plants you like

• Shoots of perennials that you like

• Wildlife that’s active

• Other natural objects

That’s it! That’s all you have to do this week. Make a mental note of these things and where they are, perhaps some photos as a record.

The plan is to revisit the plants on warm days over the coming weeks to either see how the grow or to dig up seedlings or bits of perennials to move elsewhere (in your garden, not from the wild).

Free plants is where the magic lies in gardening and now is the perfect time to look and make plans.

In our garden I cut back our autumn raspberries last week using my chop and drop method and I can see the original plants have expanded a lot. While dormant I have dug up some of these new stems with roots and planted in a local market garden - at least six new plants entirely for free.

Elsewhere I’ve been spotting wildflower seedlings naturally appearing around the established parent plants. Yarrow, ox-eye daisy and musk mallow. Most of these I’ll leave where they are, others I will dig up soon and move to other areas of our garden. Free flowers.

Surprisingly, we have virtually no lawn daisies in our garden. I’ve seen only two tiny patches, one in a corner of our drive (above) and another in the chicken area. They aren’t thriving in either spot, so I plan to dig up a few of the rosettes, with roots, and will plant them into our main scrappy garden path where they will be much happier.

I’m also starting to form a little list of perennials already in our garden that I want to divide soon to help increase colour. These include daylily (Hemerocallis), pulmonaria, asters and astrantia.

The great thing about this mini project is that the plants are completely free and it’s easy because there is no potting on involved. All you have to do is enjoy them where they grow or move them from one spot to another. I find it fun because I’m involved in creating something in partnership with nature.

What can you find in your garden? Please do share your treasures with me in the comments below...

February is one of the bleakest winter months but it is also fresh with signs of early growth. Trees and meadows are at their most bare and flat, dead stems of dormant garden perennials collapsed or ready to be clipped. Days are lengthening rapidly and we barely notice sunrise is shifting to before we wake.

Look closely and you’ll see the swell of buds on branches. Elderflower and honeysuckle already have unfurling leaves. Snowdrops are in their prime, joined by pink cyclamen and warm pulmonaria. Rhubarb leaves are testing the temperature with visible red stems ready to stretch. Daffodil buds are emerging from olive green leaves and the first dandelion flower is almost open.

Shoots of asters, helenium, rudbeckia, hylotelephium and more are forming dense clusters of shoots at ground level, ready for the off. And just like those plants, we the gardeners are in the wings doing our warm-ups, shuffling seed packets and ordering plants, ready for spring’s starting whistle.

Gather

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Most seeds are best sown from mid-March onwards when day length is longer with more light and rising temperatures. Waiting until then reduces stretched seedlings (called etiolation) and ensures they have maximum energy to grow strongly.

However, there are some seeds that benefit from being sown right in winter while it is still cold. A number of flower and edible perennial seeds need a period of stratification to help break their dormancy. This means winter conditions of cold and wet, and you can use the cold weather to your advantage.

There are also a number of cuttings that either must be taken in winter while plants are dormant or benefit from being grown now. I’ve listed these below.

Inside

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