Santa, all I want for Christmas is...manure

Reduce watering

WITH three weeks to go until we reach the winter solstice, the hours for gardening are becoming scarce.

On a couple of occasions I’ve abandoned attempts to fit in some sorting out mid-afternoon because it has turned gloomy and I’ve narrowly missed standing on a couple of small frogs that have been hopping about in shady corners.

Yet the urge to garden doesn’t disappear with the light, so what else do you do once you’ve tidied out the tool shed, polished your wellies and arranged your gardening books in alphabetical order?

Well, if you are anything like me you start to think up responses to relatives asking me what I would like for Christmas. My lot have learned not to be taken aback when I ask them for hoes and dibbers instead of perfume and scarves.

And I’m not alone. I know of one gardener whose husband surprised her with a lorry load of manure and she was delighted. Another told me that the battery-powered hedge trimmer she found under the tree last Christmas was the first thing she’d save if her house went on fire.

At the moment my own personal wish list includes woolly socks and some Gold Leaf gardening gloves (£21, (goldleaf-gloves.com) to protect me from cuts and scratches while I’m pruning roses and cutting back berberis.

I’d like a dedicated sieve for covering seeds with a fine layer of compost so that I don’t have to keep pinching the one from the kitchen and then scrubbing it hard before I make cakes. And a proper gardening journal would fill me with delight. At the moment all my plant lists are

left scattered around the If you haven’t taken steps to ready the garden for winter then don’t delay. Wrap outside tabs with insulation to prevent them from freezing and line the inside of the greenhouse with Bubblewrap. Cover alpine beds with sheets of glass and wrap tender plants growing in pots in a layer of fleece. house on random pieces of paper. Not only do I lose these, but they sometimes turn up covered in cartoons drawn by my nine-year-old.

I do like a bit of luxury, so if any family or friends want to give me an afternoon tea package to Gardening Scotland then I’d be very grateful. Next year is the show’s 20th anniversary and for £41 you can get a ticket, free parking, a programme and a delicious afternoon tea (gardeningscotland.com).

Terracotta pots in any size and shape would be very welcome, but failing that a big roll of hessian that I can use to wrap around plastic containers in order to give them a more stylish appearance would go down a treat.

We could always do with more bird feeders around here to keep the blue tit population happy, but most of all I’d like a big tube of gardener’s hand cream. Horatio’s Garden, the charity behind the beautiful garden at the National Spinal Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow, has a nice selection.

Profits from every £12 tube go to help the charity continue its inspirational work (shop.horatiosgarden.org.uk).

Some people choose to do this to prevent fungal diseases from spreading and to make the flowers more visible, but if you like the look of the leaves and they are healthy then just keep them.Continue clearing away dead foliage from borders and adding it to the compost heap.Q Can I plant garlic now? – Craig White, EdinburghA It’s too cold to plant it outdoors, but if you’ve got a cold frame or greenhouse then grow it in modules and plant these out in spring.Clear fallen leaves off alpine plants and top-dress troughs and alpine beds with gravel.Q Why has my lemon tree lost most of its leaves It grows in my conservatory. – Dorothy Kyle, Falkirk.A Too much or too little water can both cause leaf drop, as can positioning the tree too close to a radiator. Use a winter feed, and keep the tree cool but not cold, ensuring it has plenty of light and it should recover.If spreading salt on paths during icy spells, take care to prevent it burning the leaves of surrounding plants.Q What’s wrong with my Skimmia? The buds never turn red. – L McAllister, by email.A I suspect that your Skimmia is the variety ‘Kew Green’, which has green buds and flowers. There’s nothing wrong with it, it is just doing what it’s supposed to do.Check over winter bedding removing any dead leaves and flowers.Q How do I treat a winter flowering Jasmine that’s got out of hand? – Joan Maxwell, Symington.A Wait until the flowers are over then cut it hard back. It will recover and produce new flowers next winter.houseplants and move them from cold windowsills at night.