If you look even closer down at ground level or in tubs and pots where spring bulbs are planted, your heart will be filled with optimism when you see that the tips of the smallest and earliest of these bulbs are already pushing through the soil on their perennial journey into the light.

This is the signal to watch for, the annual reminder that now is the finest time of all to take a look at the lie of the land, at the quality of your existing stock and to start working on new planting and design ideas for the future.

Top of this action list, particularly for young or rather empty gardens (and of course this includes balcony gardens, yards, tiny front gardens and even windowsills), should be planning ahead to spring. People seem to remember spring gardens vividly, gratefully, probably because every little flower shines out so bravely when there is little else to admire.

No matter how well you have already arranged for winter with a show of strong evergreens, how beautifully architectural your garden will look under a blanket of snow or a shimmering mantle of hoar frost, there are dark days ahead.

We need to plan for these so that, when the world is at its dreariest and darkest in the new year, we can sniff the air and find the first sign of life-affirming spring, be it in a swelling leafbud, a tiny violet, an early snowdrop or the Elizabethan ruff of a yellow winter aconite unfurling itself through January snow.

So with bleak midwinter not that far away, my advice is 'plant to thrill' yourself and other people. And it is bulbs, now on sale everywhere, that are by far the easiest route to Thrillsville. There is nothing quite like a good spring show to set our senses reeling again.

Remember that all bulbs like a rich soil or a soil-based compost (such as a John Innes No 2, or No 3 at a stretch: ask the assistant if you can't find bags of this, as most places will have it. ) Bulbs must have proper drainage or they will rot. So if in doubt about this, simply incorporate plenty of horticultural grit (also widely available) into the mix you are using.

When buying bulbs, be wary of those being offered very cheaply and reject any that are shrivelled or showing too much mould. Some of the earliest-flowering kinds to look out for are scillas, snowdrops (though these are better bought "in the green", ie, when they are actually growing, as the dry bulbs do not have such a good success rate, despite all claims to the contrary).

Look out also for wood anemones, crocus, cyclamen, winter aconite, tiny early narcissus and February-flowering reticulata irises.

GROW YOUR OWN GARLIC Fresh garlic, before the skin is dried out, is incomparably delicious . . . fragrant, delicate and so silky in texture you could call it sensuous. Eaten raw, it has medicinal properties, being particularly good for lowering blood pressure and thereby lowering bad cholestrol.

If worried about the antisocial side of eating raw garlic, try chewing some raw parsley or cardamom seeds as a chaser. It works. The old rule about garlic is "plant on the shortest day of the year and harvest on the longest", but you don't have to stick to that.

Garlic is usually planted in October or November, except in very cold and wet areas when it's best left until March.

Choose a variety breed for a temperate climate, rather than using left-over cloves bought for cooking, which more than likely were grown in a much hotter country than this. After that, you can save some cloves and plant them out in following years.

Use the fattest single cloves and plant them about four to six inches apart, in a light but rich well-drained soil in full sun, with the pointed end just showing above the soil. Garlic is also reputed to be a good companion for roses, as it deters greenfly and, indeed, aphids of every hue.

WHAT'S ON Wednesday 1 November, 7.30pm:

'The Livable Landscape . . . An Evening with Rick Darke', in conjunction with the Garden & Landscape Designers Association and the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College. This a rare opportunity to meet and hear the award-winning author of The Colour Encyclopaedia of Ornamental Grasses (Timber Press, 1999). Darke will talk after the opening (at the Douglas Hyde Gallery from 6pm) of an exhibition of work by renowned photographer, Robert Adams, who has been documenting the changing American landscape for over 30 years.

Tickets are 15, bookable in advance from 01-896 1116 or 01-278 1824.

Sunday 29 and Monday 30 October:

The Ideal Homes Exhibition, RDS Simmonscourt, Dublin 4.

According to a recent EBS report, 110m is happily maturing in SSIA funds and this year's Ideal Homes is promising to show you lots of things to spend it on, including how to extend your living space into the garden.