In most cases, plants require a constant moisture level in the soil. However, a mild draught between successive watering cycles stimulates root growth. In the case of the rows in a flowerbed, you usually need to water the plants only once or twice a week. Rare but abundant watering is more beneficial, rather than frequent watering with small amounts of water.

The soil heats up during the day and then cools down at night, which means that a smaller amount of the water is converted into vapour. In this way, the plants obtain a sufficient amount of moisture to survive the next hot day. Wet leaves can quickly become sick, and leaves that stay wet during the night may be exposed to mould. Watering the leaves during sunny weather may also cause burns, as the water droplets act as lenses and focus the sunlight.

Garden soil, which usually contains plenty of clay minerals, expands more, can accumulate more water and hence provide more uniform hydration. During a rainy summer and winter, it is necessary to correctly drain any excess water to prevent the soil from becoming too damp.

What do you expect from your garden? Do you dream of a place for the children to play, a vegetable plot or a contrasting sea of flowers?

As it is difficult to reconcile all these dreams in reality, in the beginning you need to limit your expectations. Creating your Eden is a process that is going to take time. Before you start working, it might be worth considering the functions of your garden. Is it supposed to be a place for leisure, fun or simply colourful flowerbeds?

Start slow…

Whether you are the new owner of a house, an apartment with a garden or an allotment, there is no need to hurry in your first season. That soil layer may still hide the garden dreams of the previous owner, and there maybe many perennial plants there that bloom each year. Other areas may need to be uncovered and restored.

How much can you do yourself?

The answer is to strike the right balance between time, knowledge and money. For many gardeners, doing everything themselves is part of the charm. There are others out there who prefer to rely on professionals and use the services of designers or landscape engineers. However, while some of us have to rely on ourselves, we can always ask our neighbours to help us out.

Perhaps you are wondering why it is so important to prune in the winter, if your fruit trees have managed to yield ample fruit for a long time without any intervention. The answer is quite simple: modern expectations require large and attractive fruits. Although the fruit may appear on the trees at harvest time, even without pruning, trees that are not pruned often yield plenty of small fruit, overloading the branches and causing them to break under their weight in the summer. Consequently, to ensure a good yield in the summer, it is worth considering pruning the trees during the winter period.

Before you start, you should take a closer look at the trees to avoid pruning mistakes. The best time for pruning is a dry winter day, when the temperature does not drop below -5°C. There are many potential mistakes to be made while pruning, so it is best to follow a few key rules:

1. Branches that grow vertically upwards or downwards, particularly if they are thin, should be cut for the benefit of the tree.

2. All tools used to prune the trees have to be sharp. Secateurs and scissors for trees and shrubs can help you make precise and even cuts in the tree crowns.

If you are pruning your trees during the winter, there are many aspects to consider, but sadly we cannot discuss them all here. You can find more information and guidance in the gardening literature.

These are two completely different processes that occur in the soil. Mineralisation results in the oxidation and loss of organic matter. This process may take place in aerobic conditions, when it is referred to as decay, or in anaerobic conditions, when it is called putrefaction. However, this organic matter can turn into humus, which is the purpose of the humification process.

Simply put, humification consists of breaking down the organic matter, followed by its repeated synthesis into humic compounds, such as humic acid and fulvic acid, which combine into humus. The presence of a large amount of humus gives the soil a dark colour. Humus increases the ability of the soil to retain water, which is significant during periods of little or no rain. Unfortunately, the formation of humus, also known as humification, takes much longer than mineralisation.