Make sure you tackle those essential garden tasks in preparation for spring
'Winter is the time for taking stock of your garden and making a list of what you need to add to or remove from it, now you can see the bare bones of the structure.'
Cyclamen
Cyclamen are my favourite winter-flowering pot plants, but many people have trouble with them. If you just remember that they need good light, cool conditions and hate hot, stuffy dark rooms, you should succeed with them. I keep mine on a sunny windowsill.
Never water cyclamen too much. I let my plants dry out so they just start to wilt before adding more, but do not let them collapse completely. I then dunk them in a bowl of water and return them to the pot cover. Remove any faded flowers or yellowing leaves by twisting the stem through one revolution and tugging hard to remove it. If you just nip off the ends, the remaining stem will rot, and this may spread down to the base.
Hardy cyclamen sold for containers do not usually last much beyond the New Year, but they will last longer if you keep picking off dead flowers and any dying leaves, and removing anything that is mouldy.
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| A phormium (foreground left) adds interest to a border, with a Leycesteria shrub to the left and a holly behind
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Evergreens
Winter is the time for taking stock of your garden and making a list of what you need to add to or remove from it, now you can see the bare bones of the structure. A few newly planted evergreens will give your garden structure in the forthcoming winter. Suddenly, even plain plants, such as laurel, can seem beautiful as the winter sun is reflected from their leaves.
Remember that evergreens have foliage of different sizes, shapes and textures. A group comprising large, fatsia foliage, a fine-leaved hebe, a fountain of phormium and a silvery brachyglottis (
Senecio) will look attractive all year, and a joy in winter.
Prepare to plant from spring through to autumn, once the sun has warmed the soil up. Avoid planting in extremes of temperature such as excessive wet or drought.
Greenhouse
Keep greenhouse heating bills to a minimum by putting up a bubble-polythene insulation.
Remove dead leaves and flowers from pelargoniums to prevent that ugly-looking disease, grey mould, from appearing, as it can kill plants.
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| Hoeing the soil
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Hoeing
Do a little hoeing if you get a dry, sunny day to remove weeds, break up the soil surface and refresh the appearance of your borders. Be careful not to damage herbaceous plants or emerging bulbs. Sharpen the blades of hoes to make them more efficient.
Hyacinths
Bring prepared hyacinths planted in September inside now, provided the white shoots are at least 5cm (2in) high. Keep them in a cool, light spot to bring them into flower gently. They'll last longer there than in a warm room. I use the greenhouse as the first stage of acclimatising them, then after a week I bring them into the house. Make sure they do not dry out.
Peach leaf curl
The leaves of peach, almond, nectarine, and sometimes even apricot, trees can be affected by the fungal disease peach leaf curl. The spores are spread by rain, although the disease is relatively easy to prevent. Simply cover plants that are trained against a wall with plastic sheets. This stops the fungal spores from germinating by keeping the branches dry.
If you have a patio peach in a pot, you can bring it into the greenhouse, or even a shed, until it starts to grow in spring, but make sure the plants don't dry out at the roots.
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| Shake off excess soil and select the thickest roots for cutting
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Phlox: root cuttings
Root cuttings are an incredibly easy way to increase your stock of some herbaceous plants, particularly those that have thick roots, such as globe thistle (
Echinops), oriental poppies and mullein (
Verbascum). It is an especially useful method for phlox because old plants may be affected with eelworm. This means any divided plants will also be infected, but because the eelworm does not affect the roots, plants grown from root cuttings will be free from the pest.
Step by step
1 Dig up a clump of your chosen plant and shake off the excess soil. Select the thickest roots and cut these into sections about 5-8cm (2-3in) long.
2 Try to keep the pieces of root the right way up. The root sections should have a straight cut at the top and a sloping cut at the base, as a reminder.
3 Fill a pot with gritty cuttings compost and put the root sections in this. Cover the top with 1cm (1/2in) of grit.
4 Leave the pots in a cold frame, or in a cool greenhouse and keep moist. In spring, the roots will start to produce shoots and can be potted separately. If you do forget which is the top of the root pieces, don't despair. Simply lay them horizontally on the soil surface.
Rhubarb
Rhubarb is easy to grow and crops over a long period - the variety 'Livingstone' crops for longer than most. Rhubarb dislikes waterlogged ground and grows best in full sun and rich soil. If you have an established clump, you can lift and divide it now, or pot up a few pieces of the crown. Then, force them in a shed for an early crop.
Roses: planting
This is a good time to plant roses. Bare-root kinds are the cheapest option and often give the best results because you can spread their roots out into the soil. If you plant potted roses now, tease out the roots from the rootballs carefully to spread them into the soil evenly.
A rose bush should last a decade or more with care. Prepare the ground by forking rotted manure or garden compost into the planting hole. Leave feeding until spring, but water well, even if the ground appears moist to make sure moist soil is in contact with all the roots. Trim back the stems to a healthy bud: bare-root or pre-packed roses are often pruned roughly.
Roses: pruning
You can prune rambler and climbing roses now, although they have different requirements. Rambling roses usually have masses of small flowers in one flush in July and you prune them in a similar way to raspberries and blackberries. Cut out the flowered stems near the base and tie this year's new shoots in their place to bloom next year. Gardeners usually leave pruning climbers until spring, but you can prune back the sideshoots and cut the oldest, gnarled stems back to the base. The intention is to cut out stems more than three or four years old and retain a framework or two- or three-year-old stems.
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| Shrub pruning
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Shrubs: pruning
This is a good time to tackle some shrub pruning in the garden. Reduce the length of wisteria shoots, cut out reverted green shoots of variegated evergreens, trim back fast-growing shrubs such as buddleias (
Buddleja) and mallow (
Lavatera), but leave their main prune until March, and tackle overgrown climbers like honeysuckle (
Lonicera).
You can also take on any pruning that should have been completed in summer, such as cutting out some of the oldest stems of
Deutzia, mock orange (
Philadelphus)and
Weigela, but do not give them an all-over trim or you will be removing flower buds.
You can also see dead and diseased branches more easily than in summer, so this is the time to cut out coral spot on flowering quince (
Chaenomeles) or badly cankered growth caused by woolly aphids on apples (
Malus) and firethorn (
Pyracantha).
Soil testing
When I give advice at garden centres, I'm frequently surprised at how many gardeners have no idea of the acidity of alkalinity of their soil. A simple soil test kit from a garden centre is inexpensive and could save you a small fortune in dead plants. This is the ideal time to test the soil.
The amount of soil you need is tiny - a teaspoonful is enough. But, to ensure you do not get a false result, collect several samples from around the garden and mix them together. Take the sample from an inch or so below the soil surface, to avoid the effects of cat or dog urine, and avoid soil near walls as it may contain leached-lime mortar. Remove large stones, gravel and leaves from the soil and add some distilled or filtered water. Then shake the tube and let the water settle, and prepare the colour with the chart provided in the kit.
Sowing seeds
You can sow many alpine plants, some herbaceous plants and most shrubs now, as well as seeds you have collected from roses, sorbus or other hardy shrubs. Use a loam-based compost, such as John Innes No.1, and sow the seeds on the surface. Then, cover with fine grit to stop them blowing away and to help prevent moss from growing. Water and put the pots outside in a shady place, then cover them to protect from heavy rain and mice. A cold frame is ideal, but you can also use an old propagator if you've one at hand. Check that they don't dry out. You can either leave the seeds to germinate in the natural warmth in spring, or bring them into a propagator in March.
Sprouting seeds: alfalfa
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| Terracotta sprouter
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I guarantee you will appreciate some crisp, refreshing alfalfa shoots a few days after the Christmas culinary excess, so why not try sprouting some of your own seeds? Alfalfa is the easiest of all salads to grow, although I find they take a few days longer than most packets suggest. All you need are the seeds and a seed sprouter - either a shop-bought type or a homemade version. If it's the latter, simply find a clear container and a lid with holes, or a piece of cloth so you can extract the excess water without the (small) seeds falling out. Radish and broccoli are just as easy, but alfalfa has a delicious taste that reminds me of pea pods. New this year is the GEO 3 Tier Terracotta Sprouter (£22.95 inc VAT) from
Juiceland
Step by step
1 Put a small number of seeds in the container and add plenty of water. Shake gently, leave for 10 minutes and then pour off the excess.
2 Twelve hours later, add more water and then pour it off immediately - it may be coloured from pigments in the seedcoats.
3 Continue to rinse the seeds twice a day. Keep the container in good light to ensure the seedlings turn green. Eat after four to seven days.
Sweet peas
Get the best from your autumn-sown sweet peas by planting them in moist, rich soil full of organic matter. If you have the chance, dig out a trench as you would for runner beans and fill it with well-rotted manure, garden compost or partly decomposed plant material. Over the next few months, keep filling the trench with kitchen waste and material that you would otherwise throw on the compost heap. Then, in spring, cover the trench over and allow the material to settle, before planting the sweet peas or runner beans. The only downside to this process is that it can encourage slugs on heavy soils, so you should take extra precautions in spring.
Tree ties
This is the time to check all tree ties, and the ties on shrubs and climbers too. Ties should not be too tight (stems and trunks grow in summer, and wire or nylon ties can cut into the bark). Also tie in cane and hybrid fruits to their supports. Cut out the fruited stems and train the new ones to their wires.
Tulips
There's still time to plant tulips as these bulbs tolerate late planting. Some garden centres may have bargains on limited spare stock that they want to shift.
Veg plot
Try to get your winter veg-plot digging done as soon as possible. This will give any frosts a chance to break up clay soils and means that the soil will be ready and weed-free for spring sowing.
Watering equipment
Drain watering equipment, if you have not done so already, as frost can damage hoses and irrigation systems when the water freezes and expands. Store watering computers somewhere frost-free for winter. Lag outdoor taps with foam, rags or straw and waterproof coverings.
Winter pansies
Winter pansies can suffer from aphids, which cause the shoots to become twisted and congested, so spray them with insecticide. Pansies also suffer from mildew, especially if the plants are allowed to dry out, so keep watering even if you think it's unnecessary.
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