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Cabbage (Brassica) plant covered in frost

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Although you might think that January is a quiet time in the garden and your uninspiring borders appear to be nothing but dull brown twigs then you're missing out on some of winter's stunning plants.

Winter gardens don't have to be elaborate affairs – even a potful of pansies dropped down in front of a variegated evergreen can be a picture. Look for a suitable spot in full view of your house that is sunny and sheltered to pack with plants with winter interest.

Favourite winter shrubs include Lonicera fragrantissima, Hamamellis mollis and the x intermedia variety 'Jelena' and mahonia 'Charity' that earn their keep by pumping out perfumes to die for and others like Cornus Midwinter Fire and the red-twig dogwood, Cornus alba 'Sibirica', which have colourful naked stems that appear leap out of borders like flames from a fire.

Cornus Midwinter Fire provides a blaze of colour in winter

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Prepare the ground ready for planting by digging only when the soil is not waterlogged or hardened by frost. Well-rotted garden compost or bags of soil conditioner can be incorporated when digging in order to improve the soil structure and increase the fertility of the soil, as well as its ability to retain moisture.

Hellebores will already be showing their faces in the shadiest patches of the garden, so make a trip to the garden centre now to pick up more of these seasonal plants that can be used to wake up your garden in a matter of minutes. If you've already got hellebores growing in your garden, you may want to remove the old leaves to make the new blooms more visible as they emerge.

Wake up the garden with Hellebores

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If you're a gardener with your wits about you, you'll no doubt want to get a head start on planning and planting for a riot of colour this summer. You can raise plants from seed on a warm windowsill indoors and sowings can be made now of begonia, snapdragons, bedding geraniums or pelargonium, lobelia and climbing cobaeas, thunbergia and rhodochiton.

Make sowing easier by mixing the fine seed of lobelia with dry silver sand. Pricking out will also be easier if you sow the mixture in lines 13mm apart in a seed tray, so that it's easy to tease out small groups of seedlings to grow on in small pots.

Start sowing lobelia now in fry silver sand

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On a bright, cool windowsill. Sow trays of lettuce, summer cabbage and cauliflowers, plus round varieties of carrots, spinach, salad onions and turnips. You can also sow leeks, onions, broad beans, spinach and hardy peas in the warmth.

Using a pruning saw, remove any damaged or diseased wood from trees and shrubs. This will prevent rot setting in and diseases such as coral spot spreading from branches. If you decide to have a bonfire, ensure there aren't any hedgehogs hibernating in the wood stack.

Try something new

Give your shed and outbuildings a green roof and you will create a home for wildlife. Perfect for cities, green roofs also clean air by absorbing pollution and help to cool down the heat generated by the concrete jungle.

Always make sure that your building can take the extra weight then cover it with soil and roll out sedum matting (green-tech.co.uk) – it's as simple as that!

Experiment

There is a debate about whether 'chitting' makes any actual difference in the potato yield. Chit a batch of first earlies now by putting the seed potatoes in egg boxes in a cool, well-lit place and leave for the shoots to appear.

Start chitting potatoes in January.

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Then make a comparison by planting the chitted potatoes next to a batch that is planted direct in the garden in late March. They should be ready to lift in June and July.

Last chance to…

… Prune Wisteria, cutting back side-shoots to 2 or 3 buds

… Force rhubarb by placing an upturned bin over the crown.

… Wash the greenhouse roof to remove dirt and grime, to let in more light.

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