Agnes Stevenson: A beginner’s guide to gardening’s joys … and no, you don’t need Latin lessons

A friend of mine has been in touch recently asking for help with her clematis woes. In spring she planted three, but not one has survived. Now she’s about to try growing them again and wanted some tips for success.

I gave her the standard information about placing them where the roots will be shaded but the flowers can reach sunlight, planting them deeper than they grow in the pot so that if clematis wilt strikes then they should re-sprout, and giving the growing shoots an occasional drench with tomato feed. But then I started to think about what other advice I could give to anyone who, like my friend, only discovered the joys of gardening during lockdown.

When you are new to gardening it can all feel a bit overwhelming. How do you know what kind of soil you have, what do all those Latin names mean, and why have all your bedding plants disappeared overnight? (It is usually slugs.)

Reading books and magazines, watching TV gardening shows and searching on the internet can all help, but nothing replaces the knowledge that you gain from actually getting your hands dirty.

So, to speed up the process, here are some of the things I’ve learnt from decades of having soil under my fingernails.

Hang a canopy over the back door. When you pop in to put the kettle on and then the rain sets in, your boots will still be dry when you put them back on again.

When choosing small gardening tools the most important criteria is not the make, price or design but the colour of the handles, and the more garish the better. Tasteful beechwood handles are a joy to work with, but try finding them among the leaf litter or buried in the compost heap. Keep a supply of eye wash. It’s all too easy to poke yourself in the eye with a cane or splash a foreign body into your peepers when filling a watering can or digging a border. Before you know it you look like Rocky Balbao after six rounds with Mason Dixon. A swift rinse with sterile fluid can head off an infection before it has a chance to set in.

Wear non-slip soles. Those wellies you bought because you liked the colour or the boots and that are great for climbing hills may turn out to be lethal on wet paving stones. Find something that sticks to the ground in all weathers.

And when dealing with sloping borders, try to work from the bottom and not from the top where, inevitably, you will lean out just a little bit too far in pursuit of a rogue weed and take a nasty tumble, which could hurt your back and will definitely squash your plants.

I’ve learnt all this the hard way and while the bruises have faded the memories haven’t.

Don’t worry about all the mumbo-jumbo. Pick up some eyewash and some non-slip shoes and you’re good to go! Agnes presents her essential tips for novices