I spent a useful morning last weekend re-setting the edges of our brick pavior driveway.

The kerbstones and the first row of paviors had begun to part company with the rest of the drive, giving it a slightly drunken appearance.

When I excavated the edge I discovered that the kerbs had not been concreted in properly, so that the weight of the car has been gradually pushing them over.

Although it looks like a technical job, relaying paviors is actually quite straightforward since, apart from the edges, the bricks are all laid on sand.

Starting off at the edge it is possible to lift out a few bricks at a time until you reach the uneven part (it is almost impossible to lift one straight out of the centre).

Scraping away any soily bits where worms have been lurking, scatter a thin layer of red sand over the surface before replacing the brick in its proper position.

Then the best bit - imagining the most irritating thing in your life, take a rubber mallet and hit the brick hard several times until it is level with its neighbours.

Very satisfying! Work backwards until all the bricks have been replaced and hammered down.

The kerbstones, or the last two rows of bricks if there are no kerbs, are best laid on a dry sand-and-cement mix with a wet-mix haunch along the outside edge.

This will stop the whole thing moving sideways as mine had done.

In the garden the new red leaves of pieris are starting to show, highlighting the creamy-white flower trusses.

These leaves will turn brown and shrivel if they are touched by late frosts, as will the flowers of magnolias and camellias.

Those of us who are really organised and watch the weather forecasts carefully can protect plants like pieris from frost damage by covering them overnight with a piece of horticultural fleece, or light material such as old net curtains.

This is remarkably successful, though it takes skill to drape material over the whole of a large bush without breaking the fragile shoots.

Some newly-emerging herbaceous plants may be damaged on frosty nights - there is little to be done except wait for them to start again.

Established perennials have sturdy root systems that are not affected by the cold and they will send up new shoots as soon as the weather warms up again.

Bedding plants are a different matter altogether.

These plants are generally not frost hardy and should not be planted out until all danger of frost is past.

If you buy bedding plants from an indoor nursery area remember to harden them off by exposing them to increasing amounts of cooler weather before planning them out in the open.