A fresh start: It's time to work out what's really possible in your garden and get planting

Rules are what you look for when you first start to garden: rules about humus and hardening off, intercropping and insects, pricking out and pollination. But as you go on, you understand that garden rules exist only to be broken. Your own ability to tune in to the ebb and flow of the seasons and to notice your plants' reactions to those changes will, in the end, be much more useful than any other source of knowledge. And even then, you will still have disasters. Learn to be sanguine. There is always another spring. But it's useful to spend time this month and next thinking about the year ahead, what you might grow, how you might grow it, generally sizing up the options.