- Add rainwater storage. Install water butts to collect water from roofs, garages and sheds. Rainwater is better for all plants, particularly acid-loving plants and in hard water areas.
- Keep ice off ponds. Float a ball or half filled milk bottle to ensure that the surface doesn’t ice over completely.
- Plant rhubarb. Buy as dormant ‘crowns’ and plant from now until mid-spring.Dig in with plenty of well rotted manure. Plant so the crown tip is just below the surface.
- Prune Acers and Birches. Avoid pruning where possible, but if a branch is damaged it is better to do it sooner rather than later.
- Take hardwood cuttings of deciduous shrubs.
- Check and water outdoor containers. Winter winds are often drying and rainfall can be low for weeks at a time, pots close to the house can be in a rain shadow.
- Deadhead winter bedding plants.
- Replenish bird baths.
- Knock any snow off plants with a broom or shake the plant gently.
- Plant winter interest plants such as Daphnes, Hardy Cyclamen and Hellebores.
- Harvest Vegetables.
