Alexandra Campbell has some great advice for lighting up our gardens for the festive season

Alexandra Campbell advises on the best ways to light up our gardens for the festive season.

WE’RE just beginning to think about Christmas decorations. I like to combine winter gardening with festive decorating.

If you need to prune or shape your trees, then now is a good time – and you can keep the twigs and branches for decorating.

Most deciduous trees should be pruned in late autumn or winter, except for the cherry family, which should be pruned in midsummer.

There seems to be a great deal of debate about when to prune silver birches, as some can “bleed” when pruned in winter. I think common sense can be your guide – if your silver birch seems to be bleeding sap when cut, just do a light pruning now and perhaps another light one iin midsummer. id

However, my silver birches have been pruned at all sorts of times of year and seem fine. Silver birches are the most beautiful branches for decoration, so if yours does need pruning, then it’s well worth saving what you cut.

Depending on the size of your cuttings, you could plant longer branches in a bucket and hang them with baubles. You must weight down the bucket, though, with stones or sand.

Some people hang the decorated branches on the wall or lay them on top of the mantelpiece. Find someone handy who knows how to secure them if you decide to do either of these.

Smaller branches hung with lights or decorations look great in vases (but weight them down with water or sand, because empty vases can topple over easily).

And the wispy flexible silver birch twigs can be wound round into a wreath, tied around jam jars or poked into bowls of bulbs to provide support when the bulbs are in flower.

For safety, use battery tea lights in jam jars decorated with twigs.

If you don’t have a tree in need of pruning, ask friends. Silver birches drop

their twigs regularly, so you can often pick them up in parks, woodland or on pavements. However, be aware of the rules on this kind of foraging, and ask permission if needed.

The same goes for fir cones on country walks, as well as pebbles on beaches.

Don’t forget that you need planning permission to pollard, prune or cut down trees with preservation orders, or for those in conservation areas.

You can prune fruit trees in conservation areas without getting planning permission, as long as you maintain good horticultural practice.

It’s useful to remember that these sorts of legal issues may arise, and that it’s your responsibility to check.

When it comes to decorating your garden, consider planting conifers and evergreens in pots.

At the wonderful Great Dixter gardens in Sussex there is a collection of mixed evergreens, conifers and other plants in a display on either side of the front door. This is a great way to experiment with groupings, or to grow smaller versions of trees if you don’t have space for the larger ones.

Both Waitrose and Crocus sell a collection of six award-winning conifers in pots – great indoor pot decorations this year. Then you can put them outside in pots next year, and see where they go from there.

You can hang decorations on them, too, whether they’re inside or outside.

Our local wildlife-friendly community garden, the Abbey Physic, hangs large red Christmas baubles on the bare branches of its fruit trees, and this looks very festive. Or try a Christmas wreath hanging on a shed door or on a pergola. ■