A trip to Harrogate in the spring can give you lots of ideas for the growing season C before our counterparts down South get a look in

ITS official then spring has arrived.

The swallows and house martins have made the long and dangerous journey from the tropics, the hawthorn hedges are losing their dull, depressing, grey winter colours and turning bright, fresh green, and there is a hint of warmth in the fleeting rays of sunshine.

The biggest indicator though is that the Harrogate Spring Flower Show has just happened. With a bus load of students and lecturers from the college, I had planned to go on the Thursday, but thanks to the teachers strike it was called off. Our florists still went though, as they were exhibiting in a variety of the floral arrangement categories. Instead, I went on the Friday, accompanied by my mother. I dont think that the change of day made much difference though, as the weather was fairly similar; sunny intervals interspersed by rain showers, which I suppose is fairly typical of this time of year.

Annual events, such as the Harrogate flower shows, can become stale if you attend them on a regular basis. Naturally, there is always the excitement that they witness the dawn of a brand new horticultural year, but you do get used to seeing the same old faces, the same ideas, the same displays. Luckily, Harrogate has a good management and organisation team behind it and in order to bring a bit of zip and punch to the exhibitors section, they imposed several themes and competitive edges to this years show.

In the flower halls there was a Yorkshire theme going on, so the nurseries were asked to give their displays a northern feel. Evidence of this popped up in disguises ranging from life-sized sheep, liquorice sweets, local papers, breakfasts and big cups of tea. The most practical idea, though, was thrust upon the college garden design contestants, who were asked to include a wheelie bin in their end products. It is such a refreshing change to see exhibits that provide positive, realistic solutions to everyday horticultural problems, that can be implemented by Joe (and Jane) Public in their own gardens at home.

It was interesting to see the new trends of the year arriving on the horticultural scene as well. It seems the desire for brash and bold cultivated colour themes for the varieties of wilder plants is doing a bit of a u-turn back towards the more native, natural colours.

Last year the astrantias were all shades of deep red and plum, but this year they are more muted and back to the soft pale pinks and greeny-whites of the woodland. The geums had toned down from scarlet reds, acid yellows and traffic light oranges to soft subtle creamy-yellows. The cottage garden, it seems, is reverting back to gentler more romantic themes.

The exception to the rule was with the most popular plants C the heucheras.

Whether you pronounce them harshly or softly, they were there in every colour shade from deep liquorice purples, through to toasty marmalades and finishing off at harsh citric yellows. Add a splash of architectural hosta, a thrust of glossy-leaved erythronium and a few dangling epimediums and you have the perfect semi-shade woodland border, which is, of course, what I ended up planting back at home on the Saturday after hauling a car boot load of Harrogate plants home.

I had to remove some of the existing plants from the front border in order to create some room for them. This did include a rather large phormium, which used to scare me at night as it tapped against the sitting room window. It now forms a useful screen for the compost heap. I also had to widen the border, but used this as an excuse to take off the straight edges and introduce some curves to the front garden.

If Harrogate usually sets the scene for the rest of the gardening year, then I can boast to having brought my garden right up to speed with this years trends already.

I shall have to hold my breath for a few more weeks, though, as I have just found out that I shall be visiting Chelsea in a few weeks time. It will be interesting to see if we in the North have our fingers on the horticultural pulse before the big boys down in the South.

ö Brigid presents the BBC Tees Gardening show every Sunday from 1- 2pm. Questions can be answered on the day by e-mailing brigidpress@bbc.co.uk anytime during the week, or texting 07786- 200995 and phoning 01642- 225511 during the show. Written queries can be addressed to Brigid at East Durham & Houghall College, Houghall, Durham, DH1 3SG.

Jons this month

ö Greenhouses and polytunnels can be planted up with tender vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies and peppers. Make sure that you give them plenty of room and set up adequate support systems before they need it.

ö Fill barrels and buckets with comfrey leaves, nettle leaves or grass clipping. These will form the basis of a wonderful, and effective home-made liquid manure that you can use on all your garden plants fruits and vegetables.

ö If you havent got your potatoes in the ground yet, do so this week. Plant them about two feet apart and six inches deep (but distances and depths do vary between varieties). If you dont have soil space then try buckets, empty compost bags or stacks of tyres.