Vegetables
Crop rotation may sound overly scientific for the ordinary gardener but it is an important way of getting the most from the vegetable garden and minimising the risk of diseases such as club root in cabbages or basal rot in onions, garlic and leeks.
Designed so crops take different minerals from the soil each year, good rotation will take account of chemical and physical differences between plants.
The basic rule is never to grow plants from the same family or type in the same spot two years in a row.
Leaving aside perennial vegetables such as rhubarb, globe artichokes and asparagus which stay in the same plot, divide your garden into three areas.
Make a list of what crops can be grouped: potatoes, celery, leeks, carrots, parsnips and beetroot in one group; peas, beans (all types), onions and spinach in the second; and brassicas (including cabbages, broccoli, cauliflowers and kohlrabi) in the third.
Grow them by groups this season.
In the second season, grow tap-rooted plants (group one) in plot three, the ground previously used for brassicas.
Put potatoes and the onion family into area one and brassicas in the remaining part of the garden.
Year three sees brassicas in plot one, tap-rooted plants in bed two and onions as well as potatoes in the third section.
A garden diary may make it easier to remember the movements or create a digital plan and mark what was sown or planted where, with dates.
If the weather is reasonably dry, dig any vacant ground roughly but do not try to cultivate the ground too finely at this time of the year or it can set like concrete as it dries.
Winter is a good time to sharpen and clean garden tools, and repair or clean garden furniture and shelves.
If you are clever, wooden seed-boxes and compost bins can be made from scrap timber (old pallets are excellent) and cold frames from old windows.
Even in midwinter, rhubarb and asparagus beds can be planted.
Dig the ground deeply, add plenty of manure, blood and bone and plant with crowns about 2.5cm below the surface.
Jerusalem artichoke tubers, shallots and garlic can also be planted.
Flowers
Crop rotation in the flower garden is also possible with some plants.
Stocks and wallflowers in mass displays exhaust the soil in similar ways and should not follow each other.
Likewise, if dahlias are grown in the same soil year after year, they will make excessive demands on some elements and plant quality will eventually drop.
Herbaceous borders of perennial plants such as delphiniums can be replaced every two or three years.
Lift the plants, enrich the bed with compost and replace the plants some distance from their previous positions.
Ideally, dahlias, gladioli, pansies, violas, tulips, hyacinths and narcissi should be planted in different areas of the garden each year.
Rose-planting time has arrived and nurseries soon will be full.
In a perfect world, the gardener would have deeply dug the spot for new roses some weeks ago to give the ground time to settle naturally before planting.
In reality, this may not be done until the roses have been bought, so put the bare-rooted roses in a corner of the vegetable garden until the site is ready.
Dig out holes for roses 1m apart and about 30cm deep.
The depth depends on the soil type shallower is best in heavy soil but deeper holes are recommended in light, sandy soils that become dry during summer.
The holes should be wide enough to allow the roots to lie without obstruction.
Help them rest slightly downwards by forming a slight mound in the centre of the hole, cover with good soil and apply commercial rose fertiliser.
Fruit
Winter spraying of apples and pears will help control woolly aphids, scale insects and red spider.
If you prefer not to spray, attracting waxeyes to the garden by putting a shallow container of sugar water out will encourage them to clean up bugs.
Good garden hygiene is also important in preventing or controlling disease.
Infested apple and pear trees should be given a winter oil spray. Thoroughly cover all parts of the tree.
