We were expertly guided around by the head gardener, Alan Power. Although any time of year is the time to visit the gardens, in early May the air is full of the scent of Rhododendron lindleyi. Walk around a corner and you will be hit with the sweet perfume from a bank of the shrubs fifteen feet away. Heaven.

In the Belfast garden, I can see the daily growth on the long stems of the inflorescences forming on the Stipa gigantea. I was going to take out these grasses this year and move them to Newcastle as they didn't produce any inflorescences at all last year, and had produced only five between them the previous year. I thought that the soil must be too wet for them in the Belfast garden. This year, one plant has fourteen inflorescences forming already with more seeming to appear every day. Never be too hasty in getting rid of a plant. Always give it another year to prove itself.

The first of May is the first day of summer in Ireland. Enjoy the miracles.

"These are days you'll remember. Never before or never since, I promise, will the whole world be warm as this. And as you feel it, you'll know it's true that you are blessed and lucky. It's true that you are touched by something that will grow and bloom in you.
These are days you'll remember. When May is rushing over you with desire to be part of the miracles you see in every hour. You'll know it's true that you are blessed and lucky. It's true that you are touched by something that will grow and bloom in you.
These are days.

These are the days you might fill with laughter until you break. These days you might feel a shaft of light make its way across your face. And when you do, you'll know how it was meant to be. See the signs and know their meaning. It's true, you'll know how it was meant to be. Hear the signs and know they're speaking to you, to you."

- These Are Days (Natalie Merchant / Rob Buck), from the 10,000 Maniacs album "Our Time In Eden" (1992, Elektra 7559-61385-2)

A remarkably warm day, even though the temperature is only 10 degrees centigrade. There is hardly a breath of wind. I finally cut down all the remaining perennial stems and seed heads - the Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' (perennial sunflower), Anenome hupehensis and Anenome x hybrida cultivars (Japanese anenomes), Soldago, Cephelaria giganteum, verbascums, Lysmachia, Echinops, Foeniculum vulgare Purpureum (bronze fennel) and sedums.

I also pruned the Buddleja (see "Hints and Tips") and the roses - Rosa "Graham Thomas", Rosa "Gertrude Jekyll" and two rambler type roses that are cuttings that I took from roses in the Newcastle garden. These in their turn had grown from cuttings that my parents had taken from the original roses in their parents gardens in Ardboe and Kilcoo. I don't know the names of these two roses, but both are pink, single flowering and were referred to as "cabbage roses" because of their full flowers. I lifted some of the larger Stipa tenuissima plants that had self seeded last year between the granite setts in the cobbled circle and potted them up. Finally, I pollarded the poplar, cutting back each branch to the main stem.

The garden looks very bare with all the top growth removed, and this reinforces the view that it is best to leave this dead growth in place for as long as possible throughout the winter. The warmth of the day has awoken a small tortoiseshell butterfly from hibernation and it arrives and settles on the bare soil in full sun. Some of the new growth of perennial foliage has yet to show. The Echinops 'Arctic Glow' is nowhere to be seen yet, although the Echinops 'Blue Glow' is already five inches high. Surprisingly, some Eschsholzia californica plants have survived the winter and are already producing new leaves.

I am not a great fan of the school that says there must be several plants in flower in the garden every day of the year, otherwise the garden is somewhat lacking. I think this philosophy is increasingly a reflection of a "more, now" culture that demands perfection in everything at all times. Gardening in a small garden as I do, and in a naturalistic style, I don't have the space for 'a bloom a minute' garden. In any case, as with all living things, a garden must rest and for the most part I am happy to look at spent seed heads and stems against a background of some evergreen shrubs for the duration of winter. The dead growth of perennials, moreover, can look every bit as wonderful as a flowering plant. The branched stems of the thalictrum in my garden are now so fine and bleached that they provide a wonderful contrast against the more solid mass of the sunflowers' dark mahogany stems.

I will leave all these stems and seed heads intact until Saint Patrick's Day weekend, always my first big weekend of work in the garden. Then they will be cut back and removed to reveal the new year's growth.

The first task for Saturday was to remove the first generation of annual weeds some of which are already quite mature. Weeds such as bitter cress and one which is a smaller version of the broad-leaved willowherb are best picked out as early as possible by hand. Leave them for a few more weeks, and the emerging new growth of perennials will hide them, ensuring that they will flower and seed and that you will be picking out scores of fresh seedlings this time next year. In certain areas of the garden, mostly at the boundaries and under the hedges, ground elder is also emerging. Although it is not a major problem in the garden, it is not big enough to grub out yet, so I will leave it also to Saint Patrick's Day weekend before tackling it.

I also combed out the old growth of the Stipa tenuissima. (see "Hints and Tips").

Finally I removed the old 'thatch' from Geranium 'Johnson's Blue', Geranium 'Kashmir White' and Geranium Sanguineum to reveal the new growth buds. It is surprising, once this has been done, to see how far the Geranium 'Johnson's Blue' has spread. The red of the uncovered growth buds is a very welcome sight, and it is an easy and pleasurable job to dig up some of the rampant outer spreading growths and pot them up to give to friends. The 'Kashmir White' does not spread so prolifically, but then neither does it have such a long flowering season as 'Johnson's Blue'.

When removing this old growth, don't be too particular about taking all of it away to the compost heap. Leave some on the surface for worms to pull down, or gently fork it into the topsoil as the first dressing of the year.