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Pip before, stone afterwards. This typically means that with most fruit trees which have a pip in the fruit you prune before the winter hits (October-December). This is the best time to prune because all the fruit will now be finished and all leaves will have dropped, makes pruning a lot simpler so you can see what needs to be cut back. Stone, this is fruit trees which are produced with the stone in the centre of the fruit. These are not supposed to be pruned in the winter, simply because they are prone to getting silver leaf which is a fungal disease which gets in through pruning cuts during winter time. Fruit trees with stones are best to be pruned late winter- early spring.  To help prevent insects and bugs laying eggs and spoiling your fruit in the summer, you can apply a winter tree wash between November and March time, apply by spraying over the bark on the tree, this will deprive insects the opportunity of depositing viable eggs on the plant.

This procedure is very important in the run up towards the winter period. Making sure you’re prepared and ready for an upcoming frost. Not all but many shrubs and plants in the garden will need protecting from the cold weather. Your ferns and cyclamen plants for example will need wrapping up and covering with frost fleece. Make sure you don’t get caught out and be prepared, you don’t want to be losing those plants you’ve kept so well neutered over the years do you?

It’s now time to be planting up your winter broad beans (Aquadulce) and over winter onions. Making sure the soil is loose enough to trowel out or dig up a line roughly 3-4 inches deep to sprinkle your beans in. With the onions, you can push it into the soil with just the tip of the bulb showing above soil level, making sure they are not completely buried.

Now is the perfect time to get the soil ready for early spring. You don’t want to be struggling to dig through that sopping wet clay soil when the time comes. You want to be planting up straight away, whilst everyone is thinking how your soil is that good. And the way to do it is by getting yourself some mushroom compost or horse manure. Dig it in to existing soil whilst the ground is nice, place some black polythene or black mulch over the top to cover it up over the winter, this will keep the soil warm underneath and be ideal for planting in the spring.