We moved home recently so we had a whole new garden to get our fingers dirty in. This, whilst quite daunting, proved a superb challenge and has left us feeling really proud of the results.

One problem we did have however was the hard landscaping. The property had an old driveway that needed replacing and the structure of the garden needed breaking up and redesigning. Because of the heavy lifting and the skills needed we had to hire the services of professionals to do the job for us.

Going on a recommendation, we chose a local firm who were only too happy to help. But the mess created and the amount of soil and other excess garden detritus removed, left us wondering what would have happened if we didn’t go for the hard landscaping before we got to the finer points of flowers and design.

We all know too well what an effect the exceedingly cold winter has had on our gardens and allotments. Well, news reaches us from the National Trust Bluebell Watch that the bluebells we expect to be seeing around about now are in fact not going to appear until May.

The warm winters and springs over the last few years has meant bluebells appearing as early as the first of April last year. The National Trust say that this year the bluebells are likely to all come into flower at once for a shorter period than usual. We can’t wait till the bluebells come out at the bottom of our allotment, why don’t you let us know when yours start to flower.

Good new for allotmenteers in Manchester. Thousands of pounds that has been collected from criminals has been donated by the police’s payback scheme is being given to an allotment project in Wigan.

The Norley Hall allotments will get about £5,000 to spend on a project to help youngsters who have been involved in anti social behaviour to give a little something back. They will grow produce and flowers which will be given to local victims of crime.

The scheme has been running for a while now and the area has seen a notable decrease in petty crime and anti social behaviour as a direct result.

The thing about having a garden is that it’s not just all hard work. When the sun shines, as it occasionally does in the UK, we look forward to reaping the rewards for all our hard work.

The weather has been dismal over the last few months so we are really looking forward to the sunny weather that is forecast for this weekend. We might even cut the grass!!!!

Even if you are a gardening novice you will appreciate how great it is to sit in your garden on a warm sunny day with a cold drink in one hand and your current read in the other. We are not pessimistic but we think we might invest in a good set of garden furniture this year. And a parasol to catch the drops of rain once we fire up the barbecue.

Just when we thought that spring had finally arrived, the heavens opened and destroyed just about all the seedlings we had planted out - a day in the life of the allotment gardener.

With the winter in the UK proving to be one of the worst in decades we thought that by the end of March we should be safe in the knowledge that things wouldn’t show a downturn, how wrong were we!

In hindsight there are things you can do to stop calamitites like this:

1. Start your seedlings under cloches or in the greenhouse where they are not susceptible to excessive rain or wind.
2. Plant out only established plants that will be able to take a degree of bad weather.
3. Be ready with covers if the weather starts to turn.

You will always lose a few seedlings in the early months of spring, especially in the UK. But when the weather finally gets better the fruits of your labour will finally be rewarded.