# Happy New Year and may most of your gardening be successful. We always have to have the odd failure, but we aim to do better next season. Gardeners are generally optimists.

# Your garden should look after itself for a week or so. Just make sure someone is watering and harvesting your crops[so they continue too produce] when you go away.

# Continue to dead head annuals and roses, so they produce more flowers over the next few months.

# Summer prune peaches and nectarines. Trim and tie down new growth on grapes. After berries have fruited, remove these old canes and select the strongest of the new canes for next seasons fruiting.

# Summer pruning is OK for once flowering roses and wisteria.

# A summer spray around the garden with Success will stop the caterpillar damage spreading on camellias and dahlias and lots of other plant varieties.

# The last crop of beans can be sown at the end of January and you will be picking these in early April.

# All crops will benefit from good drink of liquid fertiliser or diluted worm wee. Keep the water up to your vegetable plants as they will go too seed if become stressed.