GINA PARKINSON says the lighter and warmer evenings are the perfect time for a garden tidy-up.

Work, and hopefully the weather, hots up in the garden this month and, certainly in our house, indoor tasks are put firmly to one side as evenings lengthen and more time can be spent outside.

It is surprisingly relaxing to be able to come home from work and spend a couple of hours outside before it gets too dark to carry on.

There is a lot of pruning to be done to tidy up the garden for spring.

Remove the dead flowerheads from mophead and lacecap hydrangeas because the new shoots should be safe without their protection by now. At the same time, cut thin or old stems back to their lowest bud and take out any dead or diseased wood to open out the plant and encourage now growth.

Hydrangea paniculata, a species with long cone-shaped flowerheads, can be cut back hard in spring to produce larger flowers, but the climbing Hygrangea petiolaris just needs its old flowerheads removed.

New growth at the base of lavender plants indicates that it is time to cut them back to a point just above new buds on the oldest growth. Lavender becomes woody very quickly but annual, hard pruning will keep the plant in good shape and with plenty flower-bearing stems. The only rule is never to cut into old wood where there is no sign of new shoots.

Other silver-leafed shrubs such as the cotton lavender Santolina can be pruned in a similar way.

Lavatera is a popular shrub grown for its pink flowers, ability to grow in most soils in a sunny spot, and fast growth. However, this ease of growth also suggests that a firm hand needs to be taken with it if it is not to get out of hand and an unpruned shrub can reach large proportions within a few years.

So, take the plunge and cut all the stems hard back to the new growth that should already be visible at the absre of the plant. A more elegant shrub with thinner stems should be the result and there will still be room in the bed for other plants.

Forsythia and winter jasmine are also fast growers and so, as they finish flowering can be cut back, although not as hard as the lavatera. Cut back around a third of the oldest stems to just above ground level to encourage the production of new growth from the base of the plant.

If the plant has not been pruned for a couple of years and still looks too big after this, the flowering stems can be trimmed back to just above a side shoot.

Updated: 16:40 Friday, April 02, 2004