Over the weekend, while the weather was almost agreeable, I took the opportunity to start the winter clearing. I am generally a very tidy person and I can’t tolerate the mess winter makes of the garden for long. Leaves all over the grass and borders, skeletons of herbaceous plants, dead plants and so on. So, for what was probably for the first time this year, out came the gardening kneeling mats, gloves, fork and scissors and off I set to work. Several hours and a full green bin later, I was about half done in the back but it was getting cold and the sun was setting so I called it a day. I’ll carry on doing the rest another time.

One of the cleared areas is under the choisya (Mexican Orange Blossom). The large choysia provides a year-round shady area underneath that’s packed full of plants such as hostas, ivy, fern, lupins and foxgloves that love the cover it provides.

However, it is looking very bare at the moment, but this whole area will be burgeoning with plants come early summer. It is one of my favourite little corners of the garden. I’ll have to remember to rescue the Campanula runners that are right in the middle of a patch of hosta (currently resting underground), which itself is a pretty large so I will split the crown and get several good-sized plants from it – which reminds me, there is another hosta that also needs splitting but I need to prepare the area where the extra plants will go before I can do that, which means getting more compost in as I’ve run out…

This is how to-do lists on fax rolls were invented.