Start with a Slow Walk Round the Plot

Before you reach for the secateurs, take a mug of tea outside and simply look. Early spring is the moment when a garden reveals everything winter has done to it, and in a small mews courtyard or a narrow cottage border those revelations matter more, because every plant is quietly doing two or three jobs at once. Check for pots that have sat waterlogged through the February rains, note any shrub the frost has lifted slightly out of the ground, and look for the first plump buds on the forsythia and the greening tips of early clematis.

Test the soil as well. If it clings to your trowel in a sticky ball, it is still too cold and wet to work, and treading on it will do more harm than good. Wait for a dry, breezy day when the surface crumbles nicely underfoot. While you wait, wash and stack the pots you saved, scrub the seed trays, and give your tools a few minutes with a sharpening stone. A well-honed pair of bypass secateurs makes the whole season feel easier.

Pruning the Winter Shrubs That Have Finished

Shrubs that flowered on last year's wood should be cut back now, before they pour their energy into new growth. Winter jasmine and the winter-flowering honeysuckle both respond well to a tidy-up once the flowers fade, and mahonia can be trimmed into shape at the same time. Buddleja is the one to be brave with: cut it back hard to a low framework of buds, roughly 60cm from the ground, and you will be rewarded with larger, more plentiful cones in summer.

Dogwoods grown for their coloured winter stems should also come down hard in early spring, cut to within 15cm or so of the base, which forces the fresh shoots that carry the best colour next year. Leave anything that flowers on old wood later in the season, such as lilac and philadelphus, well alone for now.

• Snip out dead, damaged and crossing branches first, working from the centre outwards.
• Cut just above an outward-facing bud, at a slight angle, so rain runs away from the wound.
• Mulch around the base afterwards with well-rotted manure or garden compost, keeping it clear of the stems.
• In a mews courtyard, remember walls hold warmth, so growth starts earlier. Prune a fortnight sooner than a friend in open country would.

Weeding While the Ground Is Bare

Weeds get a head start in spring, and the small, sheltered beds of a cottage garden give them exactly the conditions they like. Hairy bittercress, chickweed and groundsel will already be flowering by March, and each one left standing will scatter thousands of seeds across your borders. Hoe on a dry, sunny morning when the soil surface is powdery and the seedlings will shrivel where they fall.

For deep-rooted thugs like dandelion, couch grass and bindweed, a hoe will only make things worse. Use a hand fork or a slim weeding knife and tease the roots out whole, working gently so you do not disturb the crowns of nearby perennials. This is also the ideal moment to edge the lawn, if you have one, and to fork over the surface of bare beds so the first spring rain can soak in properly rather than running off.

Sowing Hardy Seeds Under Cover

There is still frost to come, so anything tender belongs under glass, in a cold frame, or on a bright windowsill for now. Sweet peas are the great early spring pleasure: sow them in deep pots or cardboard tubes filled with peat-free compost, water them well, and keep them somewhere cool and light. Pinch out the growing tips once two pairs of leaves appear to encourage bushy plants.

Hardy annuals can also be started now, including calendula, cornflower and nigella, either under cover or direct into a warm, sheltered border if your soil drains well. Salad leaves, radishes and broad beans will manage outdoors in most parts of the country, though a cloche or a length of horticultural fleece will speed them along and keep the pigeons off.

• Label everything. It is astonishing how anonymous a tray of seedlings becomes by April.
• Water from below with a tray, never overhead, to avoid damping off.
• Open vents and frames on mild days to keep the air moving, then close them again by mid-afternoon.

Making Every Centimetre Count in a Mews Garden

Compact courtyards reward a little cleverness. Raise terracotta pots onto feet or broken tiles so water drains freely and frost cannot crack the base. Group pots together for mutual shelter, and use the warm strip of paving against a south-facing wall for the tenderest plants, such as a fig or a rosemary. An obelisk or a simple wigwam of hazel sticks will carry sweet peas up through a small space without stealing any ground.

Wall shrubs earn their keep where borders are measured in centimetres. Ceanothus, pyracantha and trachelospermum all thrive against brick and give height, scent and cover without needing a bed at all. Fill the gaps at ground level with alpines, thyme and violas, which shrug off cold and look charming spilling over the edge of a pot.

Protecting Tender Growth from Late Frosts

Keep fleece to hand until the middle of May in most of the country, and towards the end of the month in the north. Young shoots, newly planted shrubs and anything in a pot are the most vulnerable. A double layer of fleece draped loosely over a frame will see off several degrees of frost, and a night-cap over a potted plant works just as well.

Resist the temptation to plant out tender bedding, dahlias or courgettes until the soil has warmed properly. Harden seedlings off gradually over a week or ten days, bringing them in at night at first. Once the risk has passed, mulch your beds generously and the whole garden will romp away into summer.