It's so easy to put off doing some jobs around the garden especially if they are a tedious chore. Such as looking at the water butt before the recent severe cold spell.

Water butts are great, save water and money and make watering that much easier. However come the winter it's best to bear in mind that the water inside can freeze and if that happens, and it freezes solid the water expands and can split the plastic. A costly mistake worth remembering for next time.

Result:

It would have taken just a couple of minutes in late Oct/November to have prevented this. click here for gardening advice on how to prevent water damage.

It maybe mid winter, and the snow has been deep and crisp and even, but it is always cheery when the shortest day is over.

In the northern hemisphere, the 21st of December is the longest night and the winter solstice. The word comes from the Latin, meaning sun stands still, or stoppage, and so named because the sun is at the lowest point in the sky and it's noontime elevation appears in the same point for several days, as if it had stopped.

After the winter Solstice the days lengthen by about 3 mins a day and so we know that we have turned the corner on the year.

The forecast for the next few days, after possibly some more snow, is for the weather to be much milder. Most gardeners haven't been anywhere near the garden during this cold spell and now is a chance to get out there and work off some of the Christmas excess. Gardening can  burn up to 300-500 calories and there are plenty of jobs to be done.

When the snow has melted check the lawn for any remaining autumn leaves and clear them off as they damage the lawn. If, like the Sunday Gardener, you were taken by surprise with the early snow and didn't get to clear up in the garden before the snow now is a good time to go out and clear up. Many of the herbaceous plants will be a soggy brown mess when the snow goes and its time to remove and clear up dead foliage and even some weeds. The more you get now the less in the spring.

Also, it's not too late to mulch as more cold spells will surely lie ahead. Check out the Sunday Gardener's December Calendar for more tips on what to do in the garden now.

Gardeners are obsessed by the weather and winter is no exception. The cold spell arrives even earlier than last year by just two weeks.

And winter visitors to the garden look so cold.....

Have you ever wondered why you shouldn't walk on the lawn in winter? The Sunday Gardener's calendar has the explanation and other wintry advice

Gardens look fantastic in frost and one of the best plants to have in your garden at a time like this are grasses. The fronds catch the frost and fire up beautifully click here for some icy attractions

Winter has finally arrived, temperatures plummet and the first serious hard frosts and snow have arrived.

All good gardening advice reminds us to stay off lawns when it's frosty so as to avoid damage.

Perhaps now is the time to do nothing and just to look at a garden, covered in frost and ice it can be spectacular.

A pond in winter is eye catching  and its hard to believe how much life remains when its frozen for weeks. 

Grasses can also look fantastic with the winter sun glinting and lighting up the grasses.  They are good value not just in the summer, winter grasses look spectacular planted in the right position with low sun and frost.