It’s the perfect weekend for some romantic snowdrop spotting: the countryside is carpeted in small, elegant, Giselle white snowdrops which are the first signs the season is turning and spring will come. Whether you seek the expansive and breathtaking or the rare and ravishing, now is the moment to hunt down snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) in the wild or the glorious gardens of galanthophiles to enjoy their sheer beauty and fragility.

With a hosepipe ban hitting Hampshire to protect the precious habitats of our Rivers Test and Itchen and further bans planned across the South of England, there are steps we can all take to ensure we still have beautiful gardens and safeguard our environment.

If you want more hellebores in your garden, low maintenance, lovely perennials which gently sing from the side-lines and from dark corners during late winter and early spring offering the prettiest of flowers, read on for ideas and suggestions.

Adding paint colour in your garden can smarten and brighten your space, create unity, add atmosphere and inject playfulness. Now's the time to colour scheme and get your paintbrush out when spring arrives.