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Thinking about a greenhouse for a small garden? What you choose depends on your space, budget and perhaps most importantly what you want your greenhouse to do for you and your garden.

Rock gardens also called rockeries or Alpine gardens have recently come back into favour. There are various different types. Some are built to resemble natural outcrops, with stones aligned like a bedding plane.

So you have a little greenhouse or you're on the lookout for a glasshouse with bijou credentials. You also love prairie planting. It's a marriage made in the US of A! Start planning your cultivation on the principles of prairie planting and soon your little greenhouse will be coming up daisies!

These days, more often than not, aluminium is the favoured metal for a greenhouse. This super-versatile material combines strength and durability with creative designs and real innovation. 

It doesn't always have to be perfume, aftershave, slippers, socks or chocolate! What do you get the man or woman in your life who's just taken delivery of a shiny new greenhouse or looking to re-vamp and old one?

A poem by Shaylie Worden Age 11 sharing her thoughts on the garden.

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?