| Money saving tip: Container grown spring bulbs are better off without too much fertilizer so use a cheap compost and then feed after flowering. |
|
| Time saving tip: This is the time to dig over the vegetable plot. Instead of clearing the old leaves to the compost heap, dig a trench and bury them. They will soon rot down and you have done the digging as well. |
|
| Don’t walk over the lawn after a heavy frost.The crunching sound you hear is the blades of grass snapping.After the frost goes you will be left with yellow patches where you stepped. |
|
| When planting trees and shrubs add some slow acting fertilizer to the planting hole. Bone meal or fish meal is available over a long period and will get the plants off to a good start. |
|
| Lift some roots of parsley and trim off the leaves. Pot them up in a soil based compost and place on the kitchen window.It will regrow with foliage to last all winter. |
|
| If your garden suffers from hard frosts cover tender perennials such as kniphofia (red hot poker) with bark mulch to protect the plant. |
|
| Cut the tops off the Jerusalem artichokes. Dig up the roots and store them along with the potatoes in a frost proof shed. |
|
| There is nothing to beat early, young, tender stalks of rhubarb dipped in sugar and eaten raw or as a rhubarb tart. |
|
| Japanese acers in containers should be moved to a sheltered side of the house away from biting, cold winds which cause dieback of the branches |
|
| Lift a few 2 year old roots and allow them to be frosted. Pot them in a soil based compost, water them and cover with a bucket or black plastic bin liner. Keep in the greenhouse or garage. Early in the new year you can pick your own stalks. |