Jobs in the garden for December

• Beds and boarders should be dug over by the New Year so that there is plenty of time for the soil to be weathered by the wind, rain, and frost.

• Garden furniture should be thoroughly cleaned and put away. Some quality hardwood furniture benefits from an annual oiling with linseed oil.

• Winter flowering shrubs like Jasminum nudiflorum and Viburnum bodnantense can be lightly pruned and some of the blossoming growth taken indoors for floral decoration.

• Prune the apple trees as soon as the leaves have fallen and prune out any dead, dying and diseased branches.

• Make sure your containers of spring-flowering plants don’t dry out in the winter winds.