Prepare your garden for the worst of the winter weather
- Get inspiration from plant magazines and order vegetable seeds ready for the growing year.
- Mend things, such as broken fences and consider laying paths, patios and decking.
- Check tree stakes to make sure none have broken – ensure tree ties are not too tight.
- Move deciduous trees or shrubs while the plants are dormant.
- Plant bare-root fruit trees if the soil is not frozen or too wet.
- Restore hedges and overgrown trees.
- Turn over compost heap to encourage it to break down quicker.
- Put food and water out for birds to help sustain them – even in winter they need to bathe.
- Install solar panels on shed roof, which can be used for battery operated machinery, such as: hedge trimmers, mowers and strimmers.
- Take hardwood cuttings of fruit bushes.
- Prune soft fruit bushes and freestanding apple and pear trees.