Welcome to another episode of the Stopwatch Gardener podcast, where this week I’m rushing about the garden like a mad thing, getting excited about every early-spring plant and the very first humming bumblebee of the season.

I also take a minute to remember my lovely, much-missed dog Lizzy as I look at the place in the garden where she was buried a few years ago.

I’m delighted that Crug Farm has joined Beth Chatto, Vanessa Mann and Frank Kirwan to donate plants to my Rare Plants for Rare Disease fundraiser for neuroacanthocytosis research on 24 May 2014. If you run a nursery, especially if you trade in rare or unusual plants, I’d love to ask you for a donation to this worthy cause. Contact me here if you can help with a rare plant donation.

Here’s some more of what I’m talking about in this week’s episode:

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• My magic portal made from an old fireplace surround
  
• Chionodoxa
  
• Tulips
  
• Anemone Blanda
  
• Crocus tommasinianus
  
• Daphne
  
• Peach Avalon pride
  
• Dividing delphiniums
  
• Salvia
  
• Layering clematis Rouge Cardinal