Welcome to spring

IT’S gardening time again. The days are getting longer, the soil will be heating up, the sap is rising and our plots are beginning to be productive. I’m delighted to bring you part one of our introduction to the new season’s gardening (find part 2 in tomorrow’s Sunday Independent).

I’ll be looking at emerging fashions, including gardening in small spaces, vertical planting and the vogue for growing your own.

I’ll be giving tips on how to get children interested in the garden life cycle and the natural environment, and choosing my top 20 plants to plant now and enjoy all year. There’s a handy growing-from-seeds guide, and my little black book of my favourite garden suppliers.

Get some growing inspiration from our nation’s gardeners, too, who tell us how they put their gardening aspirations into practice in our ‘Me and my garden’ sections.

On our island we are lucky to benefit from a temperate climate, which means we can grow plants that originate all around the globe. So join me on this journey as we sharpen the lawnmowers, ready our shovels and spades and embrace another year of gardening with this special twopart gardening series.