We focus on different activities while we wait for spring's arrival.

Gone are those glorious days of September and October, ideal for getting stuff done around the garden, with temperatures perfect for sleeping afterwards. Now, there's nothing blooming in the garden, plants have dropped their leaves, and daylight disappears before supper.

As one of those miserably affected by the disappearing of daylight and who regards winter with about as much enthusiasm as a trip to the dentist, I have to work hard at focusing on the good aspects of the fourth gardening season. Fortunately, I'm also a "glass-half-full" kind of person who can find positive aspects to almost anything. Here are my suggestions for keeping your thumb green during late autumn and winter.

Embrace "winter interest"

Admittedly, that's one of those trendy garden terms, but it actually has merit to it. If you look out at your garden on a dreary midwinter day and see nothing but snow, or grey lawn and a few skeletal trees, that's not too interesting. But if you've planned your garden to have four-season appeal, there's always something to look at, even when the season doesn't invite hands-on activity.

Plants that provide winter interest may have eye-catching shapes, intriguing bark texture, colourful foliage, or long-lasting seeds or berries. Conifers and broadleaf evergreens with gold, blue or variegated foliage are attractive against a backdrop of snow and brighten even dreary days. Many native plants such as winterberry, witherod, wild cranberry and indigenous conifers are especially valuable for winter interest, and have the added bonus of being well suited to the vagaries of our climate. Those that produce seeds or fruit provide food for overwintering birds and other wildlife, adding an extra element of interest to your garden environment. Structures such as rock walls, arbours, birdfeeders, benches and sculptures look appealing and unique when sheathed in ice or dusted with snow.

<!-- WITHOUT CAPTION --

Don't be too tidy

There are two schools of thought on autumn cleanup in the garden. On the one hand, some gardeners prefer to remove the spent stalks of perennials, fallen leaves, and other garden detritus because it means fewer chores when spring returns. On the other hand, this cleanup can destroy overwintering shelters for beneficial insects, remove sources of food for birds and other wildlife, and prevent decomposition releasing valuable sources of nutrients into the soil. A good solution is to take a happy medium between total tidiness and total abandon. Clean up any diseased or insect-riddled plant material from around your gardens, but don't add it to your compost heap. Burn or otherwise dispose of this material, because a normal compost won't heat up enough to kill plant pathogens such as fungal spores and bacteria. Remove as many perennial weeds and weed seedlings as possible so that they don't get ahead of you next spring. Leave flowerheads on perennials and annuals such as sunflowers and grasses, both to provide a source of food for songbirds and to add more winter interest to your garden. Stalks left on perennials and annuals can also help to catch and hold snow in the garden, providing additional protection to overwintering plants and spring-flowering bulbs.

Plant more bulbs

Although we often do the lion's share of bulb planting in early autumn, we can actually plant bulbs until such time as the ground freezes or is buried in snow. I've actually planted bulbs on Christmas Eve in the rain, after an earlier snowfall buried the garden and kept me from finishing up mid autumn.

As long as your bulbs have been kept in a cool, dry location and protected from either freezing or drying out, you can tuck them into the ground throughout November and December and even into early January. Late planting may slow down the flowering of some bulbs, but they will still provide a welcome show of colour when spring arrives.

You can also plant spring bulbs indoors for early forcing. Most-such as daffodils, crocuses, and tulips-need some weeks of chilling in order to trigger bloom indoors. However, many nurseries also carry pre-treated bulbs such as amaryllis, hyacinths, and paperwhites. Simply pot these up in containers of soil or special forcing vases and watch them sprout, grow and flower in a matter of weeks.

Take your blooming interests indoors

I spend most of my working time in my home office, which has two large windows that look out on parts of the garden. The light from these windows falls on a number of flowering and foliage houseplants that keep me company and provide a much-welcome burst of colour throughout the long months when I don't work in the garden. Orchids are particularly gratifying with their spectacular flowers and long bloom periods, but other flowering plants, tropicals with brilliant foliage, and cacti and succulents also help fend off the winter blues.

During the gardening year I grow containers filled with a number of interesting annuals that won't overwinter outdoors in our climate. Because I'm never sure that I'll be able to find these unique plants in nurseries the following year, I also attempt to overwinter some of them indoors, provided they're healthy and not full of pests or killed off by frost before I get to them. When space is an issue, and I really must keep a sample of the plant, I take cuttings and overwinter them in glasses of water, where they will take root. When spring finally remembers where we live, I have young plants that are all ready to go into container plantings.

Plan for spring

In my more pragmatic moments, I'm quite sure that we need to have a few months out of our gardens. This gives us time to step back from our regular tasks to reflect on what worked, what didn't and what we might change for next year. That hydrangea shrub is getting crowded out by a vigorous rhododendron? We can move it when spring arrives. One spot in the garden is too wet for what we planted in it? Plant something that tolerates wet soil. We had midsummer meltdown in the perennial border? Look through gardening magazines, catalogues and books to find plants that keep flowering or begin blooming after the main flush of perennial bloom has passed.

Sometimes this time of year challenges us to up the ante in our gardens. Maybe we're thinking about planting a new bed, or adding a hardscaping feature such as a walkway or arbour. Perhaps we're contemplating a new home and the blank canvas of an unplanted yard. This is the ideal time of year to sketch out ideas, talk to other gardeners, landscape designers, and nursery operators, all of whom aren't quite so busy and have more time to brainstorm with you.