It is too cold to venture out in my garden, other than to feed the birds. I’ve just done that, and on the way back I grabbed a few things from the greenhouse to bring indoors: my garden journal, the box of empty packets of seeds from last year and my plant label collection – this should keep me busy through the next few days’ cold spell.

Firstly, I need to organise my box of last year’s seed packets and check those that have any left over are sealed and stored for spring sowing. Any that I don’t want I will give away or sow for plant sales. At the same time I will make notes on any I have not ordered yet for the year ahead.

Then I’m going to clean all the plant labels and file them, along with ones from previous years, under ‘shrubs’, ‘bulbs’, ‘perennials’ etc., so that I have an up to date record of what is in the garden – essential for labelling photographs correctly for libraries. This also gives me the opportunity to remove any labels of plants I know I have lost over the past year, and put in my wish list file if I want them back, or throw away if not.

Finally I will turn to my garden journal to make notes of changes in planting plans, and then I will spend the next few weeks working on the overall look of the garden and the changes I need to make this year. My friend Ruth is a clever garden designer, and she has made some good suggestions and provided me with a couple of lovely sketches that I can think about while the bare bones of the garden are in clear view.