APRIL is one of the busiest times for gardens as we prepare for the summer. I seem to have been out there in any spare moment throughout the month tidying up, preparing the beds and planting.

Oh, and digging up the concrete yard with my teenage son, but that is another tale.

One of the jobs was to sort out the containers and, in particular, completely re-do the pot and hanging basket by the front door.

These contained an assortment of bulbs, perennials and bedding left from the summer and looked pretty bad after the winter. The trouble with things in the front garden is they tend to get forgotten about once the door is shut, only to hit one in the eye when rushing out of the door to work.

A few weeks ago, the pot and hanging basket rose to the top of the must-do-now list, so I went off to the nursery to find some suitable spring subjects to liven them up.

The hanging basket was kept simple, it is an upside-down cone-shaped woven basket type that just needs to have plants put in the top, having no spaces for plants to grow out of the sides.

In the summer it usually has trailing foliage and a selection of summer flowers such as fuchsia, but for spring I chose to fill it with large cream pansies with velvety dark faces' and forget-me-nots.

The latter plants were pinched from around the back garden, where they self-seed with abundance each year.

The container reflects the cream and blue theme, but with added pinks and lime green, two colours which always seduce me.

To give some height, I chose a daffodil, narcissus Bridal Crown', which has long-lasting flowers that open in mid to late April and into May. The blooms are double with mainly milky petals and a few smaller, egg-yellow ones towards the centre of the flower. Each stem, which grows around 40cm/16ins tall, holds two, three or sometimes more flowers, which are beautifully scented.

Lower growing is a clump of grape hyacinth, Muscari armeniacum, with mid-blue flowers on stalks about 20cm/8ins high.

They prefer a sunny spot and will have to be replanted somewhere warmer than the semi-shade they are in at the moment, but for the next few weeks they will be all right.

Around the feet of the bulbs I chose to put a lovely dead nettle or Lamium with clusters of pale pink flowers and silver-striped foliage, and a bright yellowish green trailing foliage plant, filling in the remaining spaces with small groups of a delicate primula.

I am not sure of the variety, but I think the primula is a wanda type with crinkled mid-green leaves and small reddish purple flowers. It was a good buy, one overcrowded pot produced six well-rooted plants that have flourished in the space and fresh compost in the container.

Open gardens

Tomorrow
In aid of the NSPCC
The Hidden Gardens of Dunnington. Twelve village gardens open in a variety of different styles and sizes. Tickets are available from any of the gardens or from the Reading Rooms where there will also be teas, stalls and a raffle. Open 2pm to 5pm. Combined admission £3.

In aid of the National Gardens Scheme
Bolton Percy Gardens, ten miles south west of York off the A64 York-Tadcaster road. Two gardens are open in the village. Bolton Percy All Saints Cemetery is an acre of old village churchyard have been allowed to flourish and naturalise. Gardener Roger Brooks will be around to talk to, there will be a plant sale including dicentras from the national collection and the 15th century church will also be open. A short walk away, Windy Ridge has a cottage-style garden sloping down to the Ings. It is planted with a large collection of Elizabethan and Barnhaven primroses as well as many other unusual hardy perennials. Open 12.30pm to 5pm. Combined admission £3.50 adult, accompanied children free.

Hotham Hall, Hotham, near North Cave, 15 miles west of Hull. Mature parkland with established gardens, Victorian pond, mixed borders, lake with a bridge to a newly planted arboretum on an island and children's nature trail. Open 2pm to 5pm. Admission £3 adult, accompanied children free.

Londesborough Cross, Shiptonthorpe, off the A1079 York-Hull road. Former railway goods yard turned into a garden with ponds, bog area, large borders, screes, rock garden, pergola and arches planted with clematis, hosta collection and woodland garden with ferns and shade loving plants such as trillium and meconopsis. Open 1-5pm. Admission £3 adult, accompanied children free.

  • Also open on Wednesday, from 1pm to 4pm.

Orchard House, Main Street, Appleton Roebuck, eight miles south west of York. One-acre garden with brick, cobble and grass paths winding through extensive plantings to an old oak revolving summerhouse and exposed tree roots with sunken garden and grotto. There is also a parasol bed, lily and wildlife ponds, rill and stream. Open 11am to 5pm. Admission £2.50 adult, accompanied children free.

Weekend catch-up

REMEMBER to start sowing seeds if this hasn't been done already. Fast-growing hardy annuals can be put straight outside into their flowering positions, although they can also be first sown in pots and grown on. They are easier to keep an eye on and are less likely to be mistaken for weeds. More tender subjects will have to be germinated indoors or in a heated greenhouse.

Gardening TV and Radio

Tomorrow
8am, Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors.

9am, Radio Leeds, Gardening with Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

1pm, Radio York, Nigel Harrison.

2pm, R4, Gardeners' Question Time. A Yorkshire edition this week with Chris Beardshaw, John Cushnioe and Bob Flowerdew at the White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds, and Bunny Guinness and Chris Beardshaw at the GQT garden at RHS Harlow Carr in Harrogate.

Monday
8.30pm, BBC2, Return To Lullingstone Castle. In the last of the series, Tom brings the most exotic plants into the poly-tunnel for the winter and begins planning a trip to South America.

Friday
7.30pm, BBC2, Christine's Garden. Final part of the series sees September in the garden.

8pm, BBC2, Gardeners' World. An hour-long programme with a nostalgic feel as the team begin to plant up the 40-year garden.