Pruning, protecting tender plants, raking fallen leaves, and planting bulbs for spring are among the jobs you can be doing in your garden says Threave Garden instructor Nadine Stotten-Thom 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEITH KIRK

PRUNE HARD

Cutting back, tidying, and repotting house plants at this time of year is ideal, it means you can look over your plants and clean away any pests, if there are any. It also gives you an opportunity to prune off any unwanted growth. Here at Threave, we prune shrubs hard just now to build a framework for next year. The plant collections get re-potted, allowing for the plants to grow for another year in fresh growing media appropriate for that plant.

GET WRAPPING

Wrapping plants and pots before the cold weather sets in will help to reduce losses. Some tender plants might survive the winter if a heavy mulch is added to the soil, or wrap them in fleece to protect them. If you aren’t sure, then I’d move them into a frost-free area such as a shed or garage. Stop watering them when they aren’t growing.

ELEVATED STATUS

Lifting pots off the ground using pot feet will make your pots last longer and keep your plants from getting as frozen. Be sure to wrap these too; some pots can crack if we have wet and then cold weather.

LIFT LEAVES

Move leaves from plants and lawns to reduce the chance of plants rotting underneath. Leaves can either be moved to a different area of the border, or collected and put in chicken wire frames to break down for adding as a mulch in two years’ time.

POND CLEAN

Remove any dying foliage from plants in and around your pond, the decaying leaves can build up in the pond and reduce oxygen.

TULIPS TIME

Planting tulips this month will reduce the chance of a disease called Tulip Fire, which can affect tulips planted before now.

CUTTING BACK

Cutting back any monocotyledonous herbaceous such as Crocosmia, Iris etc is a good idea, as they go very mushy once the frost starts to get into the foliage and its very unpleasant once they get like this.

SHARP EDGES

Putting smart edges on to borders now will save you work in the spring, and it will look nice all winter. Go along the edges with a half-moon and make the edges sharp, then tidy up any grass with some edging shears.

GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT

Enjoy the winter veg that you have sown, such as kale. The beauty of these plants makes them a key addition to the garden: a mixture of colours such as dark greens and reds can really give a lovely display, and they taste good, too.