On a cold day in the middle of winter, pulling on one’s boots to check out the allotment can seem a bit masochistic. But if the Christmas excesses are sitting firmly round your waist, an hour or two shovelling some compost will help shift them.The soil may be too frozen for digging. Fingers quickly turn numb with weeding. Daylight hours are short, but even an hour or two can be useful. There are plenty of jobs that can be done in the winter which will pay off when spring comes. Making sure that tools are clean and sharp was something drummed in to me at an early age. I still use my Uncle Tommy’s wooden shafted fork which might not have survived for more than half a century if it hadn’t had some TLC. An oily rag hung inside his shed door so that everything was wiped clean before it was put away.My new raspberry canes need supports that will last as long as they do. Some of the wooden edging down my path needs replacing. There is an accumulation of odds and ends at the back of my plot which have outlived their usefulness and, if appearance is to be improved, must be sent on their way.It is well known that this is the season when new plotholders fall by the wayside. Some friendly encouragement can make all the difference. The mysteries of pruning fruit bushes which don’t exactly look like the ones in the textbooks can be quite worrying for a first-timer. My message to those plotholders who have been gardening for some time is to pass on some of their practical skills.If the weather is too bad to get outside, some indoor preparations never go amiss. Four copies of a sketch plan of the plot help enormously. Having worked out where everything is going to be planted next season, I can figure out some rotation of crops for the following years. Writing out seed labels ready for when planting starts is an essential job best done in a warm kitchen. And finally, if a bit of retail therapy is needed, the garden centres will have plenty of seeds to stock up on in the January sales.

In the winter months the friends and relations who were so keen to help harvest and share the summer bounty evaporate. On a cold day in the middle of winter, pulling on one’s boots to check out the allotment can seem a bit masochistic. But if the Christmas excesses are sitting firmly round your waist, an hour or two shovelling some compost will help shift them.

The soil may be too frozen for digging. Fingers quickly turn numb with weeding. Daylight hours are short, but even an hour or two can be useful.

There are plenty of jobs that can be done in the winter which will pay off when spring comes. Making sure that tools are clean and sharp was something drummed in to me at an early age. I still use my Uncle Tommy’s wooden shafted fork which might not have survived for more than half a century if it hadn’t had some TLC. An oily rag hung inside his shed door so that everything was wiped clean before it was put away.

My new raspberry canes need supports that will last as long as they do. Some of the wooden edging down my path needs replacing. There is an accumulation of odds and ends at the back of my plot which have outlived their usefulness and, if appearance is to be improved, must be sent on their way.

It is well known that this is the season when new plotholders fall by the wayside. Some friendly encouragement can make all the difference. The mysteries of pruning fruit bushes which don’t exactly look like the ones in the textbooks can be quite worrying for a first-timer. My message to those plotholders who have been gardening for some time is to pass on some of their practical skills.

If the weather is too bad to get outside, some indoor preparations never go amiss. Four copies of a sketch plan of the plot help enormously. Having worked out where everything is going to be planted next season, I can figure out some rotation of crops for the following years. Writing out seed labels ready for when planting starts is an essential job best done in a warm kitchen. And finally, if a bit of retail therapy is needed, the garden centres will have plenty of seeds to stock up on in the January sales.