It’s that time of year where I feel quite relaxed working in all the gardens I look after. There is a sense of being ‘ahead’ of nature as everything is looking nice and neat - whilst still allowing habitats for wildlife of course. The lawns have had one cut, beds and borders are weeded, mulched and edged up – nothing says ‘in charge’ more than a nice crisp edge to the borders – and all the hedges are clipped and ‘sharp’. If you haven’t cut your hedges by now, then please don’t, as birds are starting to build their nests. I have noticed numerous blackbirds, sparrows and blue tits to-ing and fro-ing with beaks full of building materials. I have put Yogi’s fur from her recent haircut outside and hung in an old peanut feeder. It is lovely to watch the birds use that for lining their nests – it must be like going to Webbs for soft furnishings them!

Of course, this bliss won’t last. By May or June, depending on the weather, nature will have changed down a few gears and accelerated past me and all gardeners and we will be left puffing and panting trying to keep up with the rapid growth of everything green. So enjoy it whilst you can.

Whilst pottering in my own garden on the weekend I was reminded that a lot of gardening is just tidying up really. Yes, on one level there is the technical side of pruning and knowing which plants are the best for each space but for most ‘people with gardens’, just keeping the garden tidy will get them through every season, not just this quiet one.

Filming for BBC Wales years ago, one programme I pitched and presented was simply that – tidying up, although it was ‘delivered’ as a make-over. As you went through the front garden there were two large pots either side of the door. One had been ‘blown’ and broken by frost and both contained dead shrubs and weeds. There was also no direct access from the back garden to the front for the mower, so the small front lawn had remained uncut and had become a real litter trap.

Simply by changing and planting the pots by the front door, employing someone to cut the front lawn - initially and on a regular basis as they did others in the street too, and giving the gate a lick of paint, this little front garden looked great. There was no real gardening involved, just ‘tidying up’ and rethinking things like getting someone else to cut the front lawn regularly. I preferred this option to putting down gravel, slabs or astro-turf – getting someone else to do the work also counts as ’no-maintenance’ in my book.

Of course, this is just one example and it was a relatively small space, but it can be rolled out on any size of garden, just break it down into manageable sized chunks. Have a look around your own garden with ‘fresh’, unbiased eyes and pick up kids toys – and old unrecognisable dogs toys I have lost count of the amount of times that I get startled by a pair of beady eyes whilst going through beds and borders, to find it is an old dog’s toy. Replace broken pots and furniture, find a suitable out-of-sight place for bags of compost, old pots and things not in daily use and whilst you’re at it, please get rid of all unused netting in your garden. Recent studies have shown that garden netting is responsible for a startling number of wildlife deaths in the garden, from birds and bats to hedgehogs. That alone is good reason for having a ‘tidy garden’.