Don’t let eddies of fallen leaves lie on or around precious little plants and alpines, or the slugs will surely have them. Snails often retreat and regroup on walls behind climbers, especially in wet weather. Make a daytime patrol and lay waste.

Long wet seasons mean plants keep on growing, including weeds. Only repeated application of weedkiller will finish off ground elder and couch grass, so why not squeeze another one in.

It’s not too late to divide colchicum corms – at least now they are flowering, you know where they are. Try them in rough grass like daffodils.

Repair wavy or broken-down lawn edges by building up the soil underneath. If the turf is truly stomped, pinch a piece from somewhere less important and swap it over. The stomped bit will be fine by spring.

Readers’ queries

We want to repot our olive (1.5m) and are unsure what compost to use. We noticed near Rome that olives are grown in grey, volcanic-looking soil. Is it OK to leave it outside? Will it fruit?

Mr J. Attwood, Ivybridge, Devon

As a general rule, all plants that like good drainage should be potted in soil-based compost, such as John Innes 1, 2 or 3. So your olive came in peat compost when you bought it? That’s just for nursery-trade convenience. Cistus and Mount Etna broom and lavender regularly come in peat, too, and it’s not good for them. Stick to soil-based now.

But this is the wrong time of year to be potting on anything (March would be the time for an olive) and compost bought now will only go sour in the bag by next spring. I’d overwinter it in a sheltered corner outside, or cold under glass. You might plunge the pot in the ground if you do leave it out. In South Devon, I would plant it out next spring, in a warm, sheltered and well-drained corner, and see how it fares. Hot seasons should produce a little fruit, but don’t buy the oil press yet.

We have a double-flowered camellia bush that we would like to prune because it is spreading. How and when do we prune?

Mrs H. Lazarus, Ilford, Essex

You only have to see the enormous hedged and topiarised camellias that we saw on my Times Readers’ Tour to Portugal last year to know how well they accept pruning. Some varieties tend to uprightness, which is fine in a small garden, but others sprawl, sometimes tearing at the root from sheer weight and sometimes breaking under snow (not much in Ilford, fortunately). These are the ones to prune.

The technique is, as far as possible, to nibble.

If the camellia has outgrown its welcome, take out a few branches – say, 30-40cm long – across the surface of the bush, so that there is always fresh growth and regeneration there, and, since you will work over the whole bush as the years go by, the overhang can never get too long and heavy. If you can bear it, let the lower branches touch the ground, to keep the wind out and act as a support.

Spring’s the time to do it – February or March – before the leaf buds burst. You will lose a few flowers, but that’s not the end of the world.

stephen.anderton@thetimes.co.uk

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