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In the gardening calendar, April denotes mid spring. April is a month of contradictions – wild and windy with April showers one day, sunny and warm like summer the next or a crazy mix of contrasting weather all on the same day, hour or even minute!

According to 19th century weather lore ‘March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb’, meaning if it starts in a wild, stormy, wintery way it will end in a far more spring-like, warm and gentle way.

It may be late winter, and although the weather can be super-chilly with snow and ice being common deterrents to getting out in the garden, if you look carefully, the promise of spring is already emerging. Week by week, more flowers start to bloom; if you're lucky you'll be blessed with snowdrops, heather, hellebores and maybe a few shoots of delightful winter-flowering cherry.

In gardening terms, we think of midwinter being around January, although the term midwinter (along with winter solstice) is a colloquial term used to describe a 24 hour period around the astronomical event on the 22nd December.

It might be nippy outdoors, but if you heat your greenhouse, even to modest temperatures (7 ˚C/45˚F) it still makes for a cosy contrast. Clear away leaves, inside and outside, remove dead and decaying flowers and foliage and water carefully in the mornings. Keep your greenhouse looking good inside and it will continue to provide a tempting bolthole from the outside world

May is the month of pleasant optimism, 31 days when the weather is mild and the flowers are in bloom. With an average temperature of around 13 degrees centigrade across the whole month, it's significantly warmer than the first four months of the year. While it's still technically spring, it often feels more like summer with temperatures rising to 19 degrees

Fancy some nice fresh veg with zero food miles? Love what you grow, grow what you love in your small yet perfectly formed 6x4 greenhouse. Ideal for the keen gardener with limited space, the beginner that wants to start out small or anyone that doesn't need a larger model. Nicely proportioned, the 6x4 greenhouse has plenty of head space inside and because it's 6 foot wide it has the benefit of a full sized door entrance too. Go for wood or aluminium, glass or polycarbonate, according to your needs and budget.

And that's just for starters. If you've already decided that a greenhouse is for you, which one do you choose? Lean to, wall garden, tall wall greenhouse, walk in greenhouse, mini greenhouse, starter greenhouse, cold frame, grower greenhouse, hot house, warm house or cool greenhouse or maybe Victorian. Then again, there's portable, pop up and potting shed greenhouse combos.

When you think of quality greenhouses, you inevitably conjure up a beautiful Victorian greenhouse, made from the highest quality hardwood, painted beautifully and perched atop reclaimed bricks, with an architectural provenance.

When it comes to greenhouse prices, do you get what you pay for? It depends on several variables including what that price actually includes and whether you are paying for quality, service or a prime location with generous markup and not a lot of expertise. There are lots and lots of greenhouse manufacturers and retailers, including online and traditional outlets. Some retailers specialise in greenhouses or garden buildings, while others, like garden centres, include them amongst their overall stock.

Greenhouse gardening is on the up as more and more people discover the joys of proper propagation and quench their thirst for food provenance

We all have a budget, well most of us! For some the sky might be the limit for a glasshouse, but for others cheap greenhouses might be the only way to get into propagation and cultivation under glass. You get what you pay for, or do you?

If you'd like to grow plants all year long, extend the growing season or cultivate a speciality that needs extra cosseting in your location, a small, medium or large greenhouse, could be the answer to your gardening prayers. Or how about growing some lovely fresh home-grown produce to zing up your larder and give new meaning to healthy eating?

In Britain, glasshouses began to appear in the 17th and 18th centuries. This emergence resulted from a need to house the vast quantities of exotic and new plant varieties, which were brought home by explorers and travellers.

For anyone with a New Year's resolution; to get out in the garden more, be greener, reduce food miles, take up a new hobby, improve the look of the garden or just grow more, a traditional greenhouse might be just the right thing. At this time of the year, tradition is all around us and it's amazing just how many of these traditions include plants!

A: When it's a Potting Shed, Greenhouse Shed or Combined Shed Greenhouse or vice versa!

Who wouldn't want a mini greenhouse for Christmas? For anyone that's passionate about the green stuff; gardening, growing and being outdoors, it's the ideal present

Recent years have seen a massive interest in growing your own. In part this has been fuelled by people questioning where their food actually comes from and supported by a vast wealth of books, magazines and television programmes extolling the virtues of home grown produce.

In Victorian times, a Victorian greenhouse was far more than a piece of garden equipment. It was a social setting, somewhere to indulge in afternoon tea