It is harder to get out into the garden as the weather gets colder and days shorten but there are still a few jobs that need to be done before the garden falls into its winter slumber. A horrible but necessary job is blackberry pruning. Tough gloves, long sleeves and wellies will make the job less hazardous as those long thorny stems cling onto anything they come into contact with, leaving long scratches on bare flesh.

Speeded up film of bramble growth shows the stems waving in the air searching blindly for an anchor which once found is used as support as the plant pulls itself along quickly covering and smothering anything in its path.

Bearing this in mind, garden blackberries - and indeed tayberries and loganberries - must be cut back annually for ease of picking and to keep growth within bounds.

This is done by cutting off all fruited canes at the base and untangling new growth and tying it to supports against the wall or fence.

New stems are likely to be quite long by now, as they will have been produced some weeks ago. They can be fragile but if broken will rapidly produce new shoots during winter or spring that will fruit a little later than stems developed the previous summer.

Protection against winter cold will give some plants in the garden a better chance of making it through to the spring.

Some penstemon varieties can succumb to cold damp soil but given a deep, loose mulch of bark, bracken or evergreen cuttings to insulate the roots will almost certainly beat the chill.

Hardy fuchsia, diascia and agapanthus will also appreciate a mulch, which can also be put over dahlia tubers in mild areas as long as the soil is well drained.

Terracotta pots can be left outside during winter but they will need to be insulated unless they are guaranteed frost proof. The simplest way is to wrap them in bubble wrap which can be bought off the roll in hardware stores and some large garden centres.

However it can prove expensive if there are a lot of pots in which case dustbin liners filled with straw, dry leaves, crumpled newspaper or polystyrene chips will do just as well.

Put empty pots somewhere out of the way but move those filled with plants to a sheltered sunny spot against a warm house wall if possible. Stand them on pot feet or brick to allow free drainage and water only when absolutely necessary.

Standard plants have become popular over the past few years with popular specimens such as roses and bay trees being joined by many other species of plant. As they can be expensive, it is worth insulating the long, bare trunk against freezing temperatures especially in cold areas.

Foam pipe lagging is ideal and easy to put in place - get it from plumbers merchants or DIY shops.

Updated: 09:57 Saturday, November 02, 2002