Our blogger Ben tries his hand at gardening...

I'm a gardening virgin. Having bought my first place last year with a small courtyard garden this has been my first opportunity to find out if I'm going to be the next Alan Titchmarsh. As it turns out, that's unlikely to happen.

I'm very good at picking things out; I just fall down on the practicalities of putting them in place. Luckily for me my dad is a builder. He's been busy laying decking, putting up fences and he even kept relatively calm when I decided to produce a 'style sheet' – a mood board of garden pictures to give an idea of the finished look – although I did withdraw it pretty quickly when he pointed out replacing fences was perhaps more important than sticking pictures onto card.

However, we are nearly at the finishing point! Weather permitting, this weekend is going to be the fun part – shopping for pots, plants and those finishing touches. Which brings me to my current shopping obsession – lanterns. Having debated over oriental-style lanterns or modern and bright versions or something more classic, I'm going with these weaver lanterns from Crocus (£7.95 each). My plan is to create a display by hanging a group of four or five together at varying heights.

Admittedly they weren't on the style sheet – but I just can't resist them!