where you want to plant them and preparing the soil for planting. Buy early and plant before the first frosts and come Springtime your garden will be a riot of colour.

It’s time to start planting seed potatoes in preparation for Christmas, Maris Piper or Duke of York are good choices to plant now for a late November harvest.

Now should be a time of harvest so all your hard work should be rewarded with a bountiful cornucopia of home grown treats – Raspberries, Plums and Crab Apples are all ripening up now.

There are a variety of autumn and winter vegetables you can plant to ensure fresh produce for the colder months – winter and spring cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli, Little Gem lettuce, ice berg varieties and Chinese cabbage are a few options.

Now is an ideal time to start a compost heap in your garden – autumn’s fallen leaves, your grass clipping and any teabags, eggs shells or coffee grinds will all ensure you have a wonderful organic rich compost for next spring’s planting.

Get your bird table cleaned and start leaving out food for the birds – they will benefit from storing up fat now to get through the winter ahead.

Cover leafy vegetable crops with bird-proof netting

Start to reduce the frequency of houseplant watering

Divide herbaceous perennials. It’s easier than you’d think

Bedding and container annuals will last longer if given some liquid feeding now — they could still have two months in them but will fade long before that without feeding and regular watering.