Christmas is upon us once again, but there are a few jobs to do in the garden before we can sit back and relax with a glass of mulled wine.
If you haven’t already done it it’s now clear up time in the garden to keep it looking good over the winter.  If you have a vegetable patch in your garden or an allotment clear away the remains of old crops to tidy up the garden and get it ready for next year.  Put all the rubbish you collect on the compost heap.  
Prune tall-growing bush roses by about a half and shorten all the branches on standard roses. Plant bare-rooted roses, trees and shrubs.  Prune hybrid tea and floribunda roses.
Prune Birches and maples if necessary before Christmas to avoid bleeding as the sap starts to rise early in these trees.
Remove summer bedding plants if you have not already done so.  Continue cutting back herbaceous perennials, dig up, divide and replant any that have got too large.  This will revive poorly flowering clumps and also increase stock.  Tidy up beds and borders ready for spring and mulch with organic compost to improve the soil.  Examine gladiolus corms and dahlia tubers removing any that are rotting.  Pot up lily bulbs for flowers next summer.  Take cuttings of rhododendrons, azaleas, and other evergreen shrubs. Prune Wisteria side shoots to 10-15 cm from the base, tie in leading shoots to create framework.   Wrap half hardy bananas, palms and tree ferns with fleece, straw or bubble polythene, also round the base of tender shrubs and climbers.
Prune established and newly planted apple and pear trees, but do not prune stone fruits.  Left unpruned, growth becomes congested with older branches bearing fewer flowers and poor quality fruit.  Pruning is undertaken when the tree is dormant – after the leaves have fallen.   Move tubs of shrubs or winter bedding to a sheltered spot.
Prune newly planted raspberries, currants and gooseberries.  Mulch well newly planted fruit trees, bushes, canes and strawberries with well-rotted manure or garden compost.  Treat trees with a tar oil wash.   Protect tender wall shrubs and fruit by pushing a few cut branches of an evergreen around the base to provide some protection or cover with fleece, also protect pot grown strawberries from heavy winter rain.
Plant shallots and garlic, divide and plant rhubarb.  Check any vegetables and fruit you have in store, discarding any that are rotting.  Stake Brussels sprouts.  Protect winter peas, beans and salads with cloches.  Dig over vacant areas.
Lay new turf when the ground is not frozen and soggy.   Grass will continue to grow if the weather is mild, so if it needs cutting mow it with a cutting height of about 2-4 cm.  Try not to walk on your lawn if it is frosty.  
If you have a greenhouse water cautiously in the morning, and keep plants such as geraniums and fuchsias etc only just damp.  Do not over water.  Ventilate the greenhouse on warm days and keep greenhouse glass clean to admit as much light as possible.  Prune indoor and outdoor vines.

© Irene Allaway

Reproduced from the BASINGA, Parish Magazine of Old Basing and Lychpit, by kind permission of the Editor and Author, Irene Allaway.