We may not welcome winter with its dark days and grey weather, but the plants in our gardens do. Winter may be less busy than summer, especially for us gardeners, but there is so much going on, visibly and invisibly.

Underground it's business as usual. Tulip, daffodil and crocus bulbs - which spent the summer resting in the dry ground - are busy putting out a whole new set of roots to anchor and feed themselves when in leaf and flower later in the year. Trees that have lost their leaves will not be drawing much water now, and the ground will be wetter below them and cool, telling those bulbs it's time to take a deep breath and start to put out roots and flower again. But evergreen trees and shrubs are still using water, especially when it's windy. And their roots are still growing, even if the branches are not.