I have a small garden and want to maximise my growing this spring as ive reached the ripe old age of 30 and I am becoming more and more interested in gardening. I have traditionally left this to my wife to do but being a green person gardening has literally grown on me.

I went to a nursery for the first time last week instead of the usual B and Q and could not believe the difference in atmosphere. B and Q makes me sweat as im sure the wife will nag me to buy tools and do DIY my most hated tasks in the whole wide world. The nursery was so peaceful and tranquil and I could easily have spent all day there especially as the sun was shining and the flowers to starting to bloom.

I could have asked for advice and gardening tips for flowers in the shade but as they were busy I decided to undertake my own research and publish for all to see. I went to the library, local second hand book stores and google never fails.

As the shaded area in my garden is against the fence, it looks grey and drab and needs colour to match the rest of the garden. I just need to find plants that can tolerate and thrive in a low amount of light and warmth in the sunny months. I don't want to waste money and kill plants experimenting and I want to get this right first time. The only thing worse than wasted money is wasted talent and I want to be a talented gardener in the future.

There is no competition for moisture and I will be using grow bags as it is currently a pebbled area so I will cover the grow bags with soil to make a cheap and easy garden but it does need to be protected from our cat and new kitten.

I have found that some spring bulbs such as crocus, snowdrops, and species tulips bloom and will be ideal providing they receive adequate amounts of sun to blossom annually in a lightly shaded area. The space in my garden receives sun late in the afternoon so this should be fine.

Spring flowering bulbs can be planted in deep shade provided you treat them as annuals, planting new bulbs each autumn and then digging them up and discarding them once they have bloomed.

I have the flowers so I need to defend the bulbs from marauding cats so I have been looking for small greenhouse type covers that will do the job and I found one that does the job perfectly. The cats have taken to sitting on top of the greenhouse and trying to dig under the small green house but so far so good. I dread the day when the heavy ginger tom cat from my neighbors property lands on it as it will probably smash my whole garden project to pieces but ill keep you posted. In the meantime I have decided to stick with cheaper more versatile plastic covering as opposed to investing in a glass greenhouse which could be cat proof so comes in two sizes only, big and bigger which is too big when working in small gardens.