As these notes were written just after the start of our second national lockdown, it is probably appropriate to reflect again on how important those of us lucky enough to have them, have found our growing spaces over the past few months.

Gardening is by nature forward looking, so rather than thinking about winter jobs, let’s be optimistic and talk about investing time now for pleasure next year.

Take advantage of bright winter days to tidy up a bit, but as we suggested last month, don’t be over eager. Increasingly leaving things a bit less tidy is being recommended to provide winter food and shelter for wildlife.

Winter can require a bit of patience, avoid sodden or frozen ground as it is all too easy to compress it and ruin the soil structure at this time of year. If you find yourself frustrated and trapped indoors, relax with a cuppa and seed catalogues and look forward to the spring that is just around the corner!

A bit of judicious tidying of old and damaged foliage on Hellebores that will be starting to put up flower spikes in December and January will help to display the flowers to best effect.

Hellebore

Another Hellebore

Now is a good time to prune plants that “bleed” sap at other times of year such as grapevines, Acers and Betula.

We don’t often get heavy snowfall in this area, but if we do then try to clear snow from evergreen hedges as the excess weight can cause the plants to split.

Winter brassicas will be dropping older leaves and it is a good idea to tidy this up so that they don’t provide over-wintering sites for pests and diseases. If you have a heated greenhouse, then pests such as whitefly and mealy bugs will still be active, so watch out for these even through the winter.

Once you’re fed up with tidying and have ordered next year’s seeds, it is also a good time of year to get creative and increase your plant stocks by taking hardwood cuttings (for example roses) and root cuttings (Verbascum, Acanthus, Oriental Poppy, Japanese Anemone).

Most important of all, look after yourselves and stay safe.  2021 holds out the hope of better times ahead with Covid vaccines on the horizon, but there is still going to be a lot of hunkering down over the winter before we can all emerge into a brighter spring.