Spring greens
This season, refresh your decor with leafy prints and zingy shades
■ Prune early flowering clematis once their flowering is finished.
■ Deadhead winter pansies to keep them producing flowers.
■ Shrubs grown for their large foliage can be pruned back hard. Catalpa (Indian bean tree) and Paulownia (foxglove) left alone will grow into large trees but you can keep them manageable by hacking back every spring and enjoying their exotic-looking foliage.
■ Many vegetables can be sown in a frost-free glasshouse – peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, celery and artichokes.
■ hardy annuals can be sown now indoors for transplanting outdoors later.
■ If you don’t have one, dedicate a small area of the garden to making your own compost – it’s a great way of managing garden waste such as lawn clippings.