Shows are great entertainment and inspiration. So drag yourself away from your garden to mingle with other gardeners and share in their oohs and aaahs.

Take advantage too of the smaller festivals and garden events around the country. Less crowded and definitely less expensive (free entry is common), these often cater for all the family.

Cheshire's Year of Gardens '08 (linked to the Liverpool European Capital of Culture 08)

Plenty of events connected with plants, gardens and the county's other attractions. There's a combined celebration of the county's canal heritage, with a floating garden festival (7-13 June) consisting of four florally-dressed heritage narrow boats converging on Middlewich for the annual Folk and Boat Festival (13-15 June) of traditional music, dance and waterways crafts.

Participate in the great pumpkin festival this autumn by registering and growing your own . You'll need to sow the seeds by May though, to get them ready to plant outside once the frost danger has passed.

Download the events calendar so you don't miss anything.

Read more on this site about Cheshire's gardens of distinction.

Shows across the UK

Look at the BBC web site for your area

The big events

As for these, we won't be able to get to Chelsea this year, but amongst our favourite show gardens there in 2007 were:

The Fetzer Sustainable Winery Garden - gold