I was only 18 when I made my first garden. But I already had ten years experience, owing to the fact that I lived with my grandmother. She was over 70 when I was born. Just looking after me was enough of a chore, so I helped out with the garden from an early age. My first solo garden was poor. Wherever you walked you saw the same plants repeated, whether it was shady, sunny, dry or wet. Inevitably the whole garden had the same feel throughout – monotonously boring.

It took me years to realise that different plants have different needs. A dianthus or a lavender will sparkle in full sun along with almost all aromatic and silvery plants, whereas a green fern will scorch in sun but thrive in soft, shadier settings. Once the penny dropped, I began to appreciate Beth Chatto’s philosophy. She later expressed this in her books The Dry Garden, The Damp Garden and The Woodland Garden. Beth’s husband was an ecologist who studied where plants came from in the wild, and Beth absorbed his knowledge and put it into practice. Her books taught me to place plants carefully, for instance to put all woodlanders near deciduous trees or shrubs for instance.

Gradually I realised that areas of my garden peaked at different times. The woodland section began with snowdrops in February and ended with dicentras in May. The cottage garden border of poppies, campanulas, gallica roses and tall bearded irises peaked in late June, whereas the moisture loving daisy border with asters, echinaceas and rudbeckias was glorious in late-summer and autumn. Plant properly and one area should give you only three months of interest – but what a glorious three months they will be.

So when garden voyeurs pop their heads over the low stone wall and spot the woodland border (pictured) they admire it before asking what follows in summer. The answer is not much – apart from some tripods of clematis that are still in the wrong place. But it matters not. The hellebores and witch hazels have handsome foliage and an all-green swathe is a restful escape from the blazing colour elsewhere. Try to think of your garden as a Christmas tree emblazoned with flashing lights that dazzle before fading.

Giving plants their preferred position has many ‘green’ advantages. Happy plants are vigorous and healthy, so you will not need to spray with fungicides. You will also have a supply of flowers from February until October to sustain pollinating insects. The diverse mixture of trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and bulbs will pull in more small animal and insect life leading to an effective ecosystem. Pests like aphids will disappear.

My spring border is midway between, having already delivered on the snowdrop and hellebore front. But the erythroniums, dicentras, ferns, wood anemones and violas are about to take centre stage. They will be followed by later woodlanders like the white catch fly (Silene fimbriata), the white double-buttoned buttercup (Ranunculus aconitifolius ‘Flore Pleno’) and a late green and white viridiflora tulip ‘Spring Green’.