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Sowing and planting

Fruit

• Buy and plant new fruit trees and bushes. Don't plant if the ground is frosted or too wet.

Vegetables

• Sow overwintering broad beans (mild areas only) outside or under cloches where the soil is well drained, or in pots in an unheated greenhouse in cold districts

• Dig up chicory roots to be forced. Pot them up after removing foliage and position them in a dark warm place. The tasty chicons will appear in three to six weeks..

• Plant garlic cloves in modules inside a cold frame, or outdoors in mild areas in their final position (free-draining soils and low rainfall areas only).
  
   

Pruning and training

Fruit

• Thin out congested spurs on trained fruit trees.

• Tie in new tiers of espaliers.

• Prune apples, pears, quinces and medlars.

• Prune red and white currants and gooseberries.
   

Problems

• Protect new sowings and crops still in the ground from mice.

• Protect brassicas from pigeons using cloches, netting or fleece.

• Remove any yellowed leaves on Brussels sprouts and other brassicas. This will prevent the development of grey mould and brassica downy mildew.

• Remove all remaining plant debris from the vegetable plot. Do not compost any diseased material.

• Deal with rodent damage on any stored fruits and nuts.

• Remove any rotten stored fruit.

• Deal with apple and pear canker.

• Deal with bitter pit in stored apples.
   

General care

Vegetables

• Parsnips can be left in the ground until needed, or lifted and then buried in a shallow trench for easy access when needed. They taste better when frosted.

• Celeriac can also be left in the ground for a bit, but do protect them from the cold with a thick mulch of straw, bracken, or other suitable material.

• Stake any Brussels sprouts stalks that look leggy and vulnerable to wind rock.

• Clean and store bamboo canes in the shed or other dry place to ensure they're still in good condition for next year.

• Dig over, incorporating well-rotted organic matter if available and weed vacant areas of the vegetable plot.

• Now is a good time to get ahead and prepare new asparagus beds for planting up in the spring.

• Order seed catalogues for next year.