Get going this Easter weekend to prepare the garden for summer, says GINA PARKINSON

Easter weekend is one of the busiest of the year for gardeners with many of us making use of the long weekend to get the garden ready for the coming summer. Garden centres and nurseries are filled with fresh plants for the new season and it will take a strong will not to come away with something. Bear in mind that Easter is very early this year and the nights have been cold over the past week with some of us having frost. Tender bedding and half-hardy perennials may not survive these low temperatures and need to be kept in a frost-free place for planting out later in May.

In our garden, we are planning on putting up trellis for the climbers and generally cutting back, tidying up and moving one or two misplaced plants. Penstemons have remained evergreen and bushy through winter but at this time of year I cut them back to stop them becoming too big for their space. In larger surroundings they can just be lightly trimmed. I also plant up some of the trimmings despite it being the wrong time of year, just in case I can get some to root. Cut back lavender at the same time by taking each stem back to just above the lowest bud - don't cut into the old wood.

Last year, I was given a hydrangea grown from a cutting and planted it under the holly tree where I thought it could grow as large as it liked to provide some interest in these rather difficult conditions. Of course the poor thing hated the dry soil and struggled to flower on spindly, almost leafless, stems. It recovered in the cool, damp winter weather but the lesson has been learnt and it is to be moved to a better place in more fertile soil in partial shade where it should do much better.

The plant that has done really well under the holly is variegated honesty sown early last summer. Over the past three weeks or so there has been a lot of growth and the leaves of this biennial which are plain in the first year are starting to show signs of variegation. By May they will be splashed with white and sprays of pure white flowers will open, perfect for lighting up a dark corner.

Updated: 09:24 Saturday, March 30, 2002