I HOPE you’ve got your Easter weekend planned, be it a bit of gardening or getting out and about. If not, there’s a lovely garden to visit in Washington on Easter Monday, just 40 minutes from the city.

Three and a half acres to be exact, set around an 1832 Regency house. The front, formally laid out with topiary and a wide lawn, with mixed borders, and a contemporary water sculpture. The rear features some new and mature trees dating back to the 19th century with herbaceous borders, a water garden and stunning uninterrupted views of the North Downs.

It’s open from 1030 to 4pm on April 2 and entry is £5 with children free. Don’t miss the great home-made teas including a selection of gluten free. More details at www.ngs.org.uk.

If you want to get out in the garden then a useful job at this time of the year could be to prune your buddleia’s. Now is a good time to cut them back to a framework of branches and encourage lots of vigorous new shoots that will have time to mature and flower this summer.

Simply cut back last year’s flowered stems to within one or two buds of old wood, or prune back harder if you need to rejuvenate it, or to keep it compact! I’ve got a couple around my pond, two buddleia buzz magenta, the compact variety, but they still need a prune every year.

This weekend the garden centres are going to be full of young starter plants. Young perennials make a good buy now as they tend to be keenly priced, compared to the larger plants later in the year. They don’t take too long to bulk up if you can look after them. Very often they will be part of deal they may have, meaning you can pick up enough to make an impact and fill any gaps.

Now is about the last time this year that you should be able to prune any roses in the garden. If you leave it any later then you are likely to prune away stems that have well developed shoots on. You are unlikely to kill a rose by pruning it so you can be ruthless if you need to renovate it!

I ordered quite a few plants from an online company earlier in the year and they are beginning to arrive now. So far, I’ve had Lobelia Hot Pretty Heaven, which is supposed to flower well into September and not burn out like traditional lobelia.

The other one to arrive is Petunia Amore Fiesta. I did have some of these last year and they seemed to last forever. They are very easy to grow and ideal for creating long-lasting colour displays in either containers, beds, baskets or flower pouches.

Read more about Geoff’s garden here www.driftwoodbysea.co.uk