For those of us wildlife-friendly types who left all our cutting down and tidying up until spring, the time for action has finally arrived!

I have to confess that it couldn't come soon enough for me. I know it's important to leave the old stems and leaves as overwinter hiding places for insects and other bugs, but the organised and orderly gardener inside me has been itching to tidy up since early November.

Leaving aside the fact that some plants have been reduced to an unpleasant mush by the winter weather, this is, in fact, a much more interesting time to cut down herbaceous plants than earlier in the season.

As the old foliage is removed, fat, new buds are uncovered, just waiting to burst into growth. My plants of Sedum spectabile, which were quite small and fragile last year, are looking particularly beefy, as are the Lobelia 'Vedrariensis' that we grew from seed last spring.

There are plump, pink buds on the bergenias, and small, white flowers coming on the pulmonarias.

Brunnera macrophylla Langtrees' is sporting its first tiny blue flowers, while Euphorbia sikkimensis is already growing strongly, its striped green and cream leaves topped with dusty purple shoots.

There's more to do than just cutting back old foliage. Two of the three candelabra primulas, which I split from one plant last year, are ready for splitting again and some thuggish plants in the bog garden need thinning or taking out completely.

A huge number of red and white valerian seedlings have germinated and are waiting to be thinned out, which is a bit of a chore but worth it for their frothy pink and white flowers.

There is still time, before spring really takes hold, to complete one or two winter landscaping' jobs.

During recent wet weather I noticed that water is running underneath the coal shed door and wetting our supplies of kindling. The brick paving outside has slowly sunk over the years and no longer slopes down towards the nearest drain.

It's a simple matter to take up the bricks, (though getting the first one out of a tightly packed matrix can be hard work) clean them off with a stiff brush, and re-lay them on a dry sand/cement mix.

For larger areas you can do as the builders do, and just use sand, but at the edges and where the bricks are subjected to a lot of traffic, I prefer to add a little cement for extra strength.

Jobs for this week: As the ground becomes warmer and more workable, plant out onion sets and shallots in the vegetable plot.

Prune back plants of autumn-flowering clematis species, such as C. tangutica and C. orientalis.

Cut down canes of autumn-fruiting raspberries to within six inches of the ground.