As the gardeners' calendar clocks into March it's the last opportunity to make any major decisions with regard to planting.

Be it the seasonal bedding that will crescendo throughout the summer and be replaced the following year or the perennial plants that form the permanent backbone to any garden.

I'd like to think that regards the planting, I've organised things to minimise the gaps, random occurrences that take place in most gardens. Especially a garden like Rydal being so immature and only now beginning to come into its own.

The 2,000 tulips planted back in October are producing very strong leaves that are so large now that the teeth of our resident mice are no longer having the effect they once had. A mix of three shades of purple will fill the borders in the lawn and (I'm hoping) will reflect the annual planting in the urns located throughout the two terraces.

Gardens that work visually tend to have colours that agree with one another and that doesn't have to be muted pastels, look at what the late Christopher Lloyd created using fantastical colour combinations. Colour is of course very important, but form, the structure in a plants stem, leaf or seed head can be just as effective. You only have to see the stunning effects created by combining grasses with long lasting summer perennials. The Nepeta tuberosa a close relation to our common catmint planted in the lawn borders will fill and take over from the tulips creating a beautiful, gentle, silvery haze forming an effective backdrop to the colours spilling from the urns. This is not a combination I've tried before so you'll have to judge for yourself this summer The new shoots of the Allium giganteum are well and truly a feature of the herbaceous borders, stunning spearmint green pineapple like clusters of leaves that look terrific against the dark brown of the bracken mulch. These have been amongst my favourite flowers since a boy and I'm looking forward to admiring their giant purple pompoms drifting amongst the other perennials. I'm getting very poetic tonight; I think it must be the mild temperatures recently.

I'm hoping that this year the plants get off to a much better start than they did last year, blighted by the intense heat of June and July it was by far ideal conditions for establishing a newly planted border. This winter prompted by the stress of last summer the roots will have hopefully gone down and out ready to give a stunning display for this summers official re-opening of the garden. Date to be confirmed.

Now that preparation work is complete on the terrace gardens, as of next week the quiet garden will receive the attention I have been promising it for many months now. The groundwork will be very mud related and I don't think even I can shroud the work in any kind of romance. What we will create this summer however will help to re-awaken a much-neglected asset in Rydals armoury of breathtaking spaces. Something not to be missed.