THIS month, I am planning on making a concerted effort to catch up with myself in the garden. I’ve already pre-booked a couple of days help, early next month, to get the roof of the shed replaced and some work completed on the roof of the summer house too.

I may well get someone to do some of the deep cleaning of the hard surfaces this year, which would be the first time.

Today, the Seedy Saturday event is taking place in the Town Hall in Lewes between 10am and 3pm. There will be seed swaps, a variety of talks, children’s activities, community growing projects to name but a few.

In addition to all the activities that they have planned throughout the day, you can also be one of the first people in the county to pick up a copy of the National Garden Scheme’s 2020 Sussex Booklet. Its 80 pages are packed full of the 160 or more gardens opening for the scheme this year, starting off with the snowdrop venues later this month.

The scheme will have a small stand there, with experienced volunteers on hand to advise you if you are thinking of opening your own garden in 2021 or maybe to recommend particular types of gardens that you might like to visit.

They will also have lists of the gardens that welcome you with your dogs. Why not pop along? This month there should be signs of the approaching spring, with bulbs starting to appear and some wildlife waking up as the light levels and hopefully temperatures start to increase.

There’s still plenty you can do indoors this month to prepare for the season ahead if the weather is not good but outdoors, as the garden comes to life again, it’s time to prune shrubs and climbers as well as evergreen hedges. I’ve got many low trimmed hedges and divisions between my various garden rooms so have to trim fairly regularly to keep them as I want them. They were extensively trimmed back in the autumn but are now beginning to show signs that I need to trim back slightly again.

Remember that if you usually have birds nesting in your hedges, it is vital to do what you have to do now, before they start making their nests this year and keep leaving food out for them to help them through the cold spells. One job worth doing now, if you have been growing winter pansies in your plot, is to remove their faded flowers to stop them setting seed. This will encourage a flush of new flowers when the weather warms up.

Read more of Geoff’s garden at www.driftwoodbysea.co.uk