Colour your life in January

New year - new garden! What do you want from your garden this year? Now is the time to get excited about all you could do in the coming year. Let your imagination run wild! Look everywhere for inspiration: the web, TV, magazines and books. Talk to neighbours, friends and staff at your local garden centre.

Time for some maintenance

Plus now’s a good time for some maintenance perhaps to fences, decorative materials and tools. Make sure you’re wrapped up warm and then, once the jobs are done and you’re back in your warm living room, that rich cup of coffee or hot chocolate will taste even better!
 

Start gently
You don’t need to do much about bulbs, corms and tub plants at this time of year, apart from checking that they are not suffering frost or rotting.
You can prune some trees and shrubs now, such as overwintering fuchsias and currant bushes.
What about adding some winter colour to your garden? Winter-flowering shrubs will brighten up your garden in these grey months. You can even plant them out if there is no frost.
 

Remember the birds
This winter has proved to be something of a blast from an icy past for many of us! However, provided the weight of snow on plants isn't so great as to cause stem breakages, the insulation of a thick covering of snow offers a valuable layer of protection..

The insulation of a thick covering of snow offers a good layer of protection for plants. The birds struggle more during the winter months, you can help them by putting out some extra bird food.