The first day of spring is just days away - the time when the garden starts to come back to life.

Plants that have been dormant over winter start to bud, and green shoots begin to appear, heralding that the growing season has begun. My first step to prepare for spring was to with a vibrant mix of colours and you can do the same at the garden centre this weekend.

I used hyacinths, miniature daffodils, muscari, primroses along with campanula, and trailing ivy. And no matter how big your garden or plot you won't be stuck for things to do. Here's my list of jobs to tick off this week:

• Weeding – it’s on the list every week but it’s the top job at this time of year.

• Help reduce plastic and make simple little paper pots for seed sowing from newspaper – wrap several times around a cylindrical object such as a bottle and then tuck in at the end. You can also use cardboard egg cartons, toilet rolls or ready to purchase biodegradable pots in garden centres.

• Herbaceous perennials that have lost vigour and are thinning at the centre can be lifted and divided which will improve their health and flowering.

• Rake your lawn to remove dead grass and winter debris. Mow and then feed to ensure its green and lush.

• If you took hardwood cuttings last year, check on them now –they should be ready for potting on or planting in the ground.

• Lightly clip heathers as flowers turn brown.

• Acid-loving plants like rhodos and camellias will benefit from an ericaceous feed.

• If you’ve been busy cutting back and pruning, give these shrubs a boost with some compost/manure or fertiliser to help them recover.

Five years ago my mother moved from a semi-detached house in the suburbs to an apartment complex near the city. At home she’d had front and back gardens. Now she’s very happily downsized to a smallish balcony high up, south facing with open skies and views to hills beyond.

The chore of is gone but she still has the desire to have something nice. Previously I’ve but there’s nothing sadder than gazing out on these when the growing months are over. So I decided in anticipation of that a balcony makeover was in order.

First, if you’re thinking of doing this make sure that the structure you are placing a garden on can take it. You may have to ask for a surveyor’s help. Mum’s is a relatively new build and the whole complex has been designed for outdoor living on every level. I gathered a collection of pots, a motley crew of stuff I had in the garage, beauties and a couple of new ones. I got 16 bags of peat free and took myself off to the . This is where I decided on making a change from the last planting.

Despite mum really just wanting colour, I reckoned we needed some structure. So I bought a few dependable evergreens – a large (false castor oil plant), a flamboyant Cordyline australis (cabbage palm), a smaller Grevillea, some ferns and lavender. For some early spring fragrance I included a young Viburnum ‘Charles Lamont’ and added some colour with three beautiful aeoniums, campanula, aubretia, Bellis perennis, polyanthus, tons of violas, foxgloves to flower later, some gorgeous bronze grasses (Carex comans) and a selection of herbs.

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Buying was the easy part. Next came the military-like operation. I got a member of the family to kidnap her for 24 hours and I moved in. Reader, the idea of a roof garden is delight. Building one can be hell. Where possible, I covered the carpet of the pristine lobby in plastic and started shifting pots, grubby compost and plants which were shedding the odd leaf flower and mulch bark left right and centre. Up we all went on countless journeys and strangers often joined us in the lift going up and down.

At one stage when I was on a compost run, I pressed the wrong button and ended up laying compost bags in a neighbour’s living room whose door had been open and looked the same as mum’s. I got out of that flat before anyone noticed. And so with everything gathered I started planting. I used the fatsia and cordyline as the backbone then built a selection of pots of varying heights.

Eighteen containers went a long way to creating a lush colourful environment with a strong green backbone. Once the landscape was completed I moved in two colourful wooden chairs. The scene was set for the return of the matriarch. It turns out she was delighted – so everybody was happy.

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