Petersham Nurseries in Richmond are running a ‘How to’ gardening workshop on Spring Staking. Set within the very beautiful, private garden of Petersham House; head gardener Lucy Boyd offers a practical demonstration on staking. A rare opportunity to step foot inside the gates of Petersham House garden and pick up the secrets of what makes its borders flourish throughout the growing season. A simple but invaluable technique, staking is a centuries old tradition. Much favoured by gardeners, it lends support to tall plants like sweet peas, hollyhocks and delphiniums and climbing vegetables including tomatoes, beans and peas. Within the 150″ long running double border of Petersham House garden, expert gardeners Lucy Boyd and Rosie Bines will demonstrate how to use coppiced hazel to stake a variety of garden plants and to create simple structures which will create stunning visual features.

Combining the practical with the creative, you will learn how to build nests out of pea sticks to support Oriental poppies; structures for sweet peas and bean pole wigwams for your beans to scramble up. They will also offer their own top tips on how best to hide visible supports - allowing the plants to take centre stage - and why it is preferable to use biodegradable twine.
This seasonal workshop aims to demonstrate how to create a beautiful mid-summer garden, bursting with colour and structure.
Petersham House is the private home of Petersham Nurseries’ owners, Frncesco & Gael Boglione. Ticket price:  £65.00 includes tea/coffee on arrival, a light lunch of homemade soup & sandwiches after the workshop, plus a bundle of peasticks to take away. www.petershamnurseries.com

Holker Hall & Gardens, which reopens on the 14th of March, celebrates its 60th season this year.  To start the season with a flourish, head gardener Yvonne Cannon and her team have planted over 38,000 bulbs. Holker Gardens will awaken with an array of spring flowering bulbs, including early, mid and late-flowering tulips and 7,500 thickly-planted primulas and primroses, through which the tulips appear. Carpets of daffodils add colour in the woodland garden and on the main lawn. In addition to the traditional planting, the gardens are also home to a number of unusual, exotic and in some instances rare plants, which although sourced from warmer climates are surprisingly at home at Holker. The Hall itself has indoor displays of hyacinths and fragrant, paper-white narcissus.  The Courtyard Café  serves locally produced food. To find out more visit Holker Hall Gardens

Get inspired to Grow your Own with the RHS. With the appetite for local, seasonal produce on the rise, the RHS kicks off its 2010 Grow Your Own Campaign on 6th March with a weekend of special events across its four gardens (Wisley in Surrey, Harlow Carr near Harrogate, Hyde Hall near Chelmsford and Rosemoor in Devon). The events have been designed to inspire everyone to have a go at ‘grow your own’ and to celebrate the start of the growing year, there is a special reduced entry fee of just £1 (RHS Members free) to all RHS gardens on Saturday 6th March.

The open day gives everyone a chance to get one-to-one advice from RHS experts, as well as talks, planting demonstrations, garden walks, fruit and vegetable displays and advice from the National Vegetable Society. There are also plenty of activities such as seed-sowing for the children, making it a day out for all the family.

Sunday February 28th

Renishaw Hall is hosting a ‘Fanfare for Spring’ from 11am-3pm on the 28th of February. Five Specialist Nurseries will be selling spring flowering bulbs including rare snowdrops, hellebores, bulbs, primulas, alpines and more. Entry: £3.50 with free car parking www.renishaw-hall.co.uk

Daily until 28th February
Over the past 12 years the current owners of Hopton Hall in the Derbyshire Peak District have gradually cleared and restored the woodland and its walks, following 40 years of neglect. This has produced wonderful displays of Snowdrops and Aconites and as they continue to clear, more of them appear.  Visit now and it will also whet your appetite for a return visit in the summer. £4 per adult www.hoptonhall.co.uk