GARDENER’S DIARY

Your weekly gardening to-do list

Plant up patio containers for Christmas. With a large container, include red-stemmed cornus, a conifer or a small, standard-trained, blue-tinged holly tree as the centrepiece. If you’re planning a garden fire, move your pile before lighting up, to avoid harming wildlife that may have crawled underneath.

Do any little tidying jobs on the patio or in the front garden if you’ll be entertaining over Christmas, and sort out outdoor Christmas lights so there’s time to replace them if they don’t work.