Winter As well as taking stock of the year and planning for the next season, it’s time to prune fruit trees and plant overwintering garlic

This is a good time to think about what you have learned throughout the past year in your own and other people’s gardens. The cold days find Jojo sitting by the fire sketching ambitious plans in her notebook

December In the garden

My allotment has a very specific aesthetic: a bit ramshackle, sometimes a little overgrown. It is productive enough, but I always strive to make it better. I prefer winter to autumn, when I am plunged into gloom, the good intentions of last spring behind me. Bindweed has taken hold, weaving a string of lantern-like seedheads through the branches of my apple tree; couch grass is knotting itself around the roots of the currant bushes; and the leaves of the gooseberry bushes are spotted with mildew. I berate myself for my sloppy gardening and, after picking a few armfuls of chard, late courgette flowers and salad, I usually run away without doing much. Far better is a crisp, winter day when the plants have died back and I can see the skeleton of my plot emerge once again.

Gardening in isolation means bad habits can creep up on you. To stimulate better practice, I visit other urban gardens. A frequent destination is a market garden in Dagenham, east London, where in 2012 Alice Holden transformed the glasshouses and growing spaces of a neglected local nursery into a small organic farm (growingcommunities.org/ dagenham-farm). It was originally funded through lottery money secured by Growing Communities, a not-for-profit social enterprise that runs a veg box scheme and sponsors apprentice growers. Costs are now financed through the sale of fresh produce.

In summer, the greenhouses groan with cucumbers, tomatoes and courgettes watered with stored rainwater, while glossy beds of chard create a red and emerald carpet. I return from September visits with bags of mixed leaves – pak choi, mustard, rocket, frilly lettuce and sorrel – as well as multicoloured heritage tomatoes, feeling that with a little more dedication I too could make a garden such as this.

In the kitchen

While otherwise delicious, when it comes to colour, winter cooking can verge on dingy.

Import a little zing by using the viridifloric essence of herbs and spinach to tint sauces, soups and, in this case, aioli (garlic mayonnaise) a vivid green. Make a green oil by whizzing together 50-75g of parsley (later on, wild garlic and nettles work a treat, as do fennel tops) and 100ml of extra virgin olive oil in a food processor. When the mixture is smooth, push it through a sieve and you will have a bright-green oil with which to dye your aioli. Crush two peeled cloves of garlic in a pestle and place in a liquidiser with two egg yolks. Beat the yolks and garlic with a teaspoon each of salt and white pepper. Pour in the oil (150ml extra virgin olive oil including the green oil) in a thin stream, adding a little boiled then cooled warm water if it starts to get too thick.

Whisk in the juice of one lemon and then add 150ml of sunflower oil, again in a thin stream. Store in the fridge, covered until needed.

Just as green is in short supply at this time of year, so is crunch. I like to grow sprouting seeds on the windowsill. It’s a fun thing to do with children and the sprouts themselves are bursting with goodness. Eat them raw in winter slaws of shredded cabbage, beetroot, red onion, coriander and chickpeas, add them to sandwiches or cook them in stir fries. I have a special sprouting jar with a mesh top, but you can use an ordinary jam jar and some coarse cloth held down with an elastic band. Take a clean jam jar, put two tablespoons of seeds (mung beans, radish, chickpeas, alfalfa or sunflower seeds) in the jar and cover with water. Fix the cloth on and leave to soak. Place your jar in a corner of the kitchen out of direct sunlight. The next morning drain off the water through the mesh/fabric so as not to lose seeds. Rinse with cold water and drain again. Try not to leave any water in the jar. Do this every morning and evening and on the fourth or fifth day, when your sprouts are growing, move them into the light to green up. Pull apart what you need, float them in water to get rid of any hulls (the outside of the seed) and then drain and use. Try them with mashed avocado, a poached egg and toast. They keep well for a day or two in a ziplock plastic bag in the fridge.

What to do

• Read. Take advantage of inclement days to refresh your knowledge. Recap on things you think you know (sowing and cultivation, for example) and gain inspiration for new directions in the coming year.

• Use dry days to lay down paths. Mulch fruit trees and bushes with compost or muck, prune blackcurrants and gooseberries, and thin out raspberries. Pull rotting leaves off brassicas and chicories, and pick off any slugs. If you happen to be near the sea, collect seaweed to cover your asparagus beds. Order leek seeds for January sowing.

What to cook

• Cardoons The cardoon was a favourite of the French chef Louis-Eustache Ude (1769-1846). This recipe is from his book, The French Cook, published in 1813. Acidulate a bowl of water with the juice of 1 lemon.

With a paring knife, peel away the fibrous rib and spiky sides of a bunch (around 900g) of cardoon stems.

Rub off any white fuzz with a clean tea towel and pop the stalks into the bowl. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and drop in the cardoons. Cook for 12 minutes, drain, cool and slice into 1cm chunks. Make a tomato sauce by sizzling 2 cloves chopped garlic in a pan with 2tbsp olive oil, a pinch of chilli flakes and a long strip

of lemon peel. Add fresh, chopped marjoram and 2 x 400g tins tomatoes and cook for 15 minutes.

Add the cardoons and cook for another 20 minutes.