The Big Spring Push

The Guardian

As gardeners everywhere gear up for the big spring push, we ask the experts for their essentials - the tool and plant they just could not live without, and the crucial job they'll turn to first.

Carol Klein

Guardian columnist, Gardeners' World presenter and owner of Glebe Cottage Plants, Devon

Favourite tool "I've had a Tina knife for years. I carry it with me all the time - whenever I go into the garden, I pat my pocket to check it's there. It's simple yet beautiful, and I use it for everything, from pruning to taking cuttings."

Want one? Tina 605 grafting/general-purpose knife, £42.49 (0800 783 2202, qualitygardentools.com).

Favourite plant "I love the woodland plant Ranunculus aconitifolius 'Flore Pleno'. It's the cinderella of the plant world - its sudden appearance, when it shoots through in spring, is always a lovely surprise, but by midsummer it's gone again."

Essential spring job "I'll be making sure the soil is right - if you don't do it in spring, it's too late. I mulch with leaf mould, which we make ourselves by collecting all our fallen leaves in autumn and stacking them in wire frames. The leaves from autumn 2006 are perfect now. I spread the mulch to a depth of about 7cm. I also use manure if I can get hold of some. It has to be really well rotted, though. The best I've ever had was 10 years old. I love mulching - it's one of those tasks that's easy to do but that's absorbing because you have to concentrate."

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