Plant garlic bulbs now

* If you missed the trick last month then now is the time to plant your garlic cloves.

* You can sow broad beans and hardy peas now to gain an early crop next year.

* I use the emptying of the veg beds as an opportunity to sow an overwintering green manure (a mixture of grazing rye and legumes) this acts as a ground cover that suppresses weeds but also hold nutrients in the soil for the spring.

* If you are not going to overwinter crops then now is about boosting fertility for next year. You can add farmyard manure and compost now and let it breakdown and improve soil over the next two, generally unproductive months of deep winter