The secret to creating a horticultural haven is year-round love and attention. Remember to plant those bulbs in Autumn, and your garden will come alive with bright splashes of colour come Spring. But keeping track of what to do when is no easy task. So to help you on your way, Times Online has compiled a gardening year planner. It gives you a month-by-month, week-by-week lists of jobs to do, plants to plant and hundreds of bright ideas, alongside in-depth advice from our experts. Whether you're tending a window-box in Balham, a few acres in Pembrokeshire, or something Zen outside Dundee - we bring you everything the you need to produce the best results. Happy gardening!

January - time to start the gardening year in earnest, sowing seeds, ordering plants, and sharpening secateurs. Time also to give the lawn a quick mow for the first time. Otherwise, keep off the grass. Click here to see full details.

February - enjoy the snowdrops and take advantage of mild spells to plant bare-rooted roses outside. Click here to see full details.

March - sow seeds directly into borders, take in the London Orchid Festival, and scarify your lawn. In week three, it's time to plant the rhubbarb (in a sunny or semi-shaded spot and a fertile soil). Click here to see full details.

51 glorious garden websites

Times Online's gardening guru opens her address book to share her top pick of gardening websites

Related Internet Links

• A ten step guide for novice gardeners

• The gardening year planner - what to do, when

• Guides for vegetable growers

BACKGROUND

• A gardener's guide to healing herbs and flowers

• Fruit bushes: what to grow and how to get a good crop

• Plant it now: a beginner's guide to snowdrops

• Neil Wormald’s week: a potted guide to growing chillies

• A guide to making a great patio garden

BACKGROUND

• A year in the garden: tasks for every season

• How to start a vegetable garden

• Twenty vegetable catalogues

• Eight great vegetable gardening books

BACKGROUND

• Growing kinds of chilli. . .

• Go ahead, pack it in

• Seeds of change

• Dolce vita on a plate

• Salad days that last forever

BACKGROUND

• Let’s not lose the plots

• A plot on the land

• Seeds of change

• There's life in the allotment

• One potato, two potato...

April - give your flowerbeds a hoe to keep the weeds out, take cuttings of dahlias, and divide and replant overgrown clumps of primroses and polyanthus. With a bit of luck there won't be any further frosts, so it’s also time to put out those hanging baskets and containers. Click here to see full details.

May - look out for greenfly on the new shoots of roses and be ready to squash them ruthlessly between finger-and-thumb before they proliferate. It's you or them. Trim hedges, sow runner beans and spread straw round the bases of strawberries - they're called strawberries for a reason. Last but not least, don't forget to go to the Chelsea Flower Show for garden ideas. Click here to see full details.

June - citrus plants can be placed outdoors for the summer months. That's right - it's summer. Dead-head roses, cut back oriental poppies, and spend every hour of daylight guarding against birds and slugs. Or getting a tan. Click here to see full details.

July - visit the Hampton Court Flower Show, cut back the spent flower stems of lupins, and, in warm and dry weather, top up the water in garden ponds. Sow turnip seeds and winter radishes. To prolong the display, cut the flowering stems of sweet peas on a regular basis and once summer-fruiting raspberries have been picked, prune the spent canes to ground level. If you must go on holiday, make sure someone's watering your garden. Click here to see full details.

August - take cuttings of shrubs, harvest aubergines and apples, but don't combine them all in a salad. Click here to see full details.

September - plant daffodil bulbs, go to the Malvern Autumn Show, and once the foliage turns brown, cut down the stems of Jerusalem artichokes. The underground tubers can be harvested throughout the autumn. Plant autumn onion sets. Evergreen shrubs that have outgrown their spaces can be lifted and moved. Click here to see full details.

October - plant deciduous and evergreen hedges, push lily bulbs into containers and borders, and conserve heat in the greenhouse by lining it with bubble polythene. Resist the urge to pop bubbles. Rake up fallen leaves or pay a small child to do it for you. Nephews, nieces and grandchildren make excellent workers. Click here to see full details.

November - protect hardy fuchsias with a thick mulch, lag outdoor taps and water pipes, and remove moss from pathways. For extra colour, add fireworks to your borders, light, and stand well back. Click here to see full details.

December - create colourful winter hanging baskets with tough plants, including ivies, winter-flowering heathers and pansies. In dry, frost-free weather, disperse worm casts on the lawn with a stiff brush. This stops them from being trodden down and invaded by perennial weeds. Cut down fir trees and either decorate with shredded aluminium or sell them for tens of pounds outside Tescos. Click here to see full details.

Explore Gardens

• Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

• Chelsea Flower Show

Times recommends

• Second homes: credit crunch casualty or money-spinner?
• How I built my own sliding house
• Top 10 incentives for house buyers