Amazingly one of our shrub roses is still supporting - just - a couple of flower heads that look convincingly alive and well! The shrub roses still have quite a good shape so pruning them isn’t something that I need to do. But the apple trees that produced such good crops last year do need attention: the leaders have grown too much as well as the laterals – there aren’t too many leggy laterals but there’s much too much growth. I’ll cut those back and also any suckers from the base of the trees. And after that I’ll use an oil-based winter wash to kill off eggs and other hibernating pests. Last year I nearly forgot to buy seed potatoes so that’s now firmly in my diary for a bit later in January. This present freezing weather isn’t doing my neighbour’s pond much good and I noticed that ice forms pretty rapidly – a large rubber ball left in the corner of their garden would be better employed in the pond and leaving a gap in any ice that formed. I might just mention that the fish won’t care much for his little boy breaking the ice with a stick – shockingly noisy for them. Recently, an unexpected rough wind provided the usual damage for the greenhouse: another pane of glass needed, but this time I’d remembered to get a spare pane when I had the same problem last March. Last year’s tomatoes and cucumber were grown in bags so that saves the hassle of replacing some of the soil in the greenhouse. The plastic tubs for compost are well away from the house and are ‘wet’ – kitchen waste mixed with garden greenstuff - rather than dry (it helps to dissuade rodents) but additionally, learning from previous mistakes, the base of the tubs are secured with wire mesh as a further rodent deterrent. Hundreds of worms have so far done a great job and last year they produced a fine, crumbly soil - they even disposed of some quite rough material too.