Some of you may be aware that as well as contributing to these pages and making television programmes about gardens and gardening, I also write books. In fact, I probably spend more hours of my working life writing books than everything else put together. The book I am working on at the moment - which will not come out until September next year - is a first gardening book. Aimed not at children but adults who are perhaps not readers of this publication (yet) and do not watch Gardeners' World but have, for the first time, access to their own plot and want to make it nice.

People criticise ‘nice' as a weak word, but I use it advisedly because when you start out with a garden, with no previous knowledge or experience, you don't really know what you want or what is possible, where to begin or where it will all end. ‘Nice' is a pretty good option under those circumstances.

First things first

This point in the year is the perfect moment to start. It is tempting to head off to the nearest garden centre and buy bits and pieces you like the look of, perhaps plonk them into the one cultivated bit of ground there is - or dig a hole in the grass and stick it in- but you need to get your planning done first. Plants are the easiest bit of any garden and, in some ways, the least important. Most can be endlessly moved and adjusted over time. But the layout and design of a garden is much harder to change and yet will influence everything. So that is where you begin.