There are two seasons that we, as gardeners, tend to do our best work. The Spring sees us setting up for the year; planting new things, moving things around and setting ourselves for the year. When summer arrives we reap the benefits; beautiful beds burst into colour, the plants we’ve moved finally start to fill into their natural shapes and the sunshine makes everything even more beautiful to behold.

Then there come the other two months. The bad ones. Autumn rolls into view and our hard work begins to undo; leaves drop off the trees and plants begin to die and our garden, as a picture, begins to fall away from us. Winter, though, well… winter remains a mystery to many gardeners; what are we supposed to do other that sit on our hands and maybe remove the odd plants that has completely died? There’s not much we can do I’m afraid.