As another year nears its end, it’s a good time to review and reflect on the year in general; what was successful and what not so, what was the impact of the weather pattern in general and was there any particular event that caused concern. How did the foundation plantings hold up and what of the new plantings, was location a cause of the problems inflicted or simply a one-off situation.

The garden can be reviewed as several entities, viz., soft landscaping including plant beds, lawn areas and veg or fruit; hard landscaping, incorporating walls, driveway, footpaths fences, buildings; tools and equipment; maintenance including general tasks, such as weeding, pruning, watering, fertilising and pest and disease control.

Keeping a garden diary is always a good exercise in noting the activities throughout the year and being able to compare with previous growing seasons.

Mother Nature being a major source of success or otherwise of a healthy well-developed garden displaying a bounty of healthy floriferous growth.

Preparing to make changes now will give you a head start come the spring; list the ‘changes’ in order of priority keeping in mind the weather conditions at certain times of the year.

Committing your thoughts to paper will ensure that the changes proceed in a timely fashion, whilst ensuring you do not forget ‘important issues’ when working through the list.

In many cases Mother Nature will have made her mark with devastating effect which is an indication that perhaps plants in this area should be relocated and hardier plants installed with the ‘injury hit plants’ located in a more protected area.

The cause for excessive damage to hedges should be determined and corrected, with either replacement plants or heavy pruning.

Pest and disease, including the ‘remedy’ can create problems and have a dramatic effect on especially tender plants; always read the label on the container before making an application.

To ensure the plant is not sensitive to the spray’s active ingredients.

Heavy winds can ‘move; plants weaken their root systems, always check base of plants to look for root movement and soil uplifting around root zone.

Inspect large trees for damage in the crotch area especially when several large boughs meet; check for cavities being created at the juncture of the boughs and seek an arborist’s advice on the treatment required to save the possibility of decay inside the heart of the trunk and demise of the tree.

Pruning heavy limbs should also be carried out to reduce the weight of canopy as well as allowing more light to the centre of the tree.

A general check of all plants for damaged, diseased or decaying branches should be undertaken and were necessary pruning undertaken back to clean healthy wood.

A check for insect activity, especially scale and mealy bugs should be carried out as a routine exercise, and infestations treated accordingly.

In lawns, winter weeds will be more dominant, but summer weeds can still be active, weed control when weeds are young will give a quicker kill and better recovery, as lawn grass growth will have slowed, but not the winter weeds.

• Malcolm D. Griffiths is a trained horticulturalist and fellow of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture in Britain. He is also past president of the Bermuda Horticultural Society, the Bermuda Orchid Society and the Bermuda Botanical Society