How do I prepare a garden after winter?

Spring tidying is usually done too early and too thoroughly. Cutting everything back at the first warm week removes frost protection and destroys overwintering habitat, and the plants gain nothing from it.

What you'll need

• Secateurs
• Fork and rake
• Mulch or compost
• Gloves (optional)

Step by step

1. Wait for the weather to settle before cutting back.Dead stems protect the crowns beneath them from late frost and shelter overwintering insects. Late spring is soon enough for most cutting back.
2. Clear paths, edges and hard surfaces first.It makes the whole garden look cared for immediately and it is the least damaging thing you can do early.
3. Assess what survived before removing anything.Scratch a stem with a thumbnail — green underneath means alive. Many plants look dead in March and are not.
4. Weed while the ground is soft and the weeds are small.Early weeding is dramatically easier than later weeding, and removing perennial weeds now prevents them establishing through the season.
5. Mulch the beds thickly.Five to eight centimetres of compost over damp soil. It suppresses weeds, holds moisture and feeds the soil, and it is the highest-value hour of the gardening year.
6. Cut back what genuinely needs it.Dead and damaged growth, last year's perennial stems once the weather has warmed, and any shrub whose pruning season is now.
7. Check and repair the structure.Fences, trellis, supports, pots and the shed. Winter damage is easier to fix before everything grows over it.
8. Prepare the vegetable beds and get sowing.Weed, mulch or dig in compost, and check the soil temperature. Sowing into cold wet soil is the main reason early sowings fail.

Tips

• Leave a corner untidy deliberately. Log piles, long grass and standing stems support the insects and predators that keep the rest of the garden healthy.
• Order seeds and plants early. The best varieties sell out, and starting in March means missing the window for several crops.
• Do not walk on wet soil, particularly clay. It compacts badly and the damage lasts for years.

Common mistakes

• Cutting everything back at the first warm spell — Dead growth protects crowns from late frost and shelters overwintering insects. Late spring is soon enough.
• Removing plants that look dead in early spring — Many perennials show nothing until well into spring. Scratch the stem for green before digging anything out.
• Working on wet soil — It compacts, particularly on clay, and the structural damage takes years to recover. Wait until it crumbles rather than smears.

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