Clear away winter’s debris

For the past four months or so, your garden has taken a battering. Wind, rain and heavy snowfall have each taken their toll on plants and other garden features, and now is the time to deal with the aftermath. It sounds like a boring task, but think of it as the first stage in setting the scene for a flourishing garden in the coming weeks and months. It’s an exciting time that will shape the success or failure of your garden for the rest of the year.

On a dry day, arm yourself with a rake, plenty of bags and don your gardening gloves then clear all the dead branches, leaves and other debris that’s been blown on to the flower beds. If you don’t already have a compost heap, you can start a new one now – it’ll be ready for use as fertilizer in the autumn.

Sow seeds for summer

Most bulbs and some seeds need to be planted in the autumn, but there are plenty that can be sown in early spring, for blooms all through summer and into the autumn. Flowers that can be sown in March and April include anemones, dahlias, fresias and many varieties of lily. If you’ve left it too late to grow your favourite flowers, the chances are they’ll be appearing fully grown and ready to buy in shops around now.

Many vegetables can be planted at this time of year, so if you’re hoping for a crop of carrots, broccoli, onions or radishes, now’s the time to start planting.

Tool up

If you’re hoping for months of happy gardening in 2010, you’ll need to ensure you’ve got the right equipment. Ensure you have a functioning fork, spade, rake and trowel, and a pair of secateurs will soon become essential as plants being growing at a quicker pace. Sharpen any cutting tools you have now, before the summer growth period gets under way, and look into investing in any tools you’re currently missing. You can buy good quality, lasting tools from a shop like Labour and Wait or Baileys Home & Garden.

There’s some helpful information here on how to sharpen and care for your garden tools.

Make a garden plan

Keeping a garden journal can be a very rewarding way to chart your progress and record successes and failures you can build on in years to come. You can use it to record everything you plant as and when you do it, and also to plan forward. Add photos, write down tips and jot down ideas and inspiration.

Image: Bortescristian

Labour and Wait is a de-clutterer’s dream, founded on strong Slow Life principles. It’s an all-purpose shop selling everything you need for stylish and comfortable living, with absolutely no gimmicks or fuss. Instead of pushing the latest ‘must have’ household gadgets and fashion-led accessories, the store’s owners specialise in functional, timeless products, many of which will last a lifetime.

Browsing the catalogue, you’ll find all you need for everyday living, stripped down to the barest essentials. But the products themselves are far from boring, having been carefully selected for their individual beauty and utility. Many items are design classics: familiar, useful objects that have stood the test of time.

Take any item from the range – a milk pan or even a toilet brush – and think about how many times you’ve bought and replaced similar items in your lifetime. It’s certainly a sobering prospect to consider how much waste we create by relying on short-term fixes to lifelong problems – all of which can be adequately handled by the simple and stylish products you’ll find here! Prices are surprisingly reasonable, considering the quality and durability of the products: a large enamel roasting dish, for example, is priced at just £30, while a set of re-usable dishcloths is £7.50.

It’s never too late to re-think your approach to consumerism, and Labour and Wait is a great place to start stocking up on the tools you’ll need to ease the transition into a simpler and more honest way of life.

Visit Labour and Wait at 18 Cheshire Street, London, or their online store at labourandwait.co.uk