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When it's cold outside, and none of the family offer to join me in the garden for a spot of tidying up, it's nice having the company of some feathered friends instead. During winter the birds are bolder and friendlier than ever, with robins

displays, and fruit to enjoy later this year. It's essential to prune wisteria twice a year. Once in the summer, shortening long, wispy new shoots to about 20cm (8in), and again in winter, pruning the same shoots further to roughly 5-7.5cm (2-3in

.While this verbena is often classed as a perennial, most gardeners treat it as an annual. Old plants can be cut down to their base each winter, and new shoots do often develop the following spring. However, for a reliable display (like the one shown in the picture

- organic home-grown plums to eat straight from the tree with enough left over to freeze and cook during winter. My 'Victoria' plums are swelling nicely, so I just hope they have the flavour to match their appearance.Crops have certainly been affected

the tubers being eaten away by vine weevil grubs. None of my begonias has survived. Next autumn I'll remember to empty out the pots, clean up the tubers, and store them in clean dry compost for winter instead.

of the midday sun. And that's the good thing about growing trees in pots: they can be moved around through the year as weather conditions change. They can be moved to a sheltered spot for winter to protect their roots from cold, but brought back on display

, and find those handy bits of cane or wire should I ever need them.I know I’ll feel better once the job is done, and then I could perhaps set about emptying out the compost bins, finishing the winter digging and tidying up behind the greenhouse. Just one

're beautiful and unique, and as I admire them I always want to call up friends and invite them round to share one of nature's winter treats.Thankfully most of our garden plants are hardy enough to withstand frost and snow, but I live in hope that temperatures

runners are stored in cold conditions, which encourages flower buds to form in their crowns — just as winter stimulates bud formation in strawberries grown outdoors. Once planted in warmer conditions, the plants undergo a surge of rapid growth.I prefer

it in gardens.Quite why so many of the flowers in our gardens during these early months of the year are yellow, I don't know. Winter flowering jasmine has been followed by forsythia (don't get James Alexander-Sinclair started on this again), daffodils have