AS the gardening year fades away we look forward to what the New Year brings. It is also a good time to review the past season and to learn from our mistakes and successes.

These should quite naturally lead us into our New Year resolutions for the lessons of the past should not be forgotten. Noting them as firm resolutions to be adhered to in the future is one of the best ways of bringing the results of experience to the new gardening year.

The prime candidate for a New Year resolution is the garden diary. The potting sheds of the land are littered with diaries which have entries which end during February and March.

Keeping a diary is a tremendous discipline, but one of the finest aids for improving your gardening. Obviously weather conditions will alter sowing and planting dates each season, but after a year or two you will have a clear picture of when to do what which is based upon your garden and not the directions of a gardening book written by an author in a more clement part of the country.

The most valuable aspect of a diary is recording what you plant. How many times have you planted a rose or a shrub which grew particularly well, but because you did not write down the name you forgot what it was called?

There are labels of course, you do not need a diary to remember names, but do you? How many labels are still there two months after planting and if they are can you still read them? Make a resolution not to push labels in beside your plants, but to record them on a simple plan or in your diary. Your garden will then look less like a graveyard and you will know what you are growing.

Resolve now to maintain your machinery properly. If your lawnmower has not had its annual service and the blades sharpened by now, then ring the machinery specialist as soon as the holiday is over. In future make sure that it is attended to as soon as the grass cutting season has finished.

A well oiled lawn mower is a joy to see and will cope admirably with that first tough cut in the spring. One clogged with dried grass and a engine that has not been serviced is a recipe for disaster, for not only will it cause problems with the mowing, but when it breaks down it will have to wait in the queue with those of the majority of other gardeners who also delayed making prompt machinery maintenance a resolution.

A stitch in time is a saying which particularly applies to gardening. It may be tempting to leave emerging seedling weeds until they are larger before hoeing them out, but resolve to do so immediately they are spotted.

The rain usually comes when the seed leaves have unfurled. It only stops raining sufficiently to hoe successfully when the weeds are so big they have to be removed by hand and barrowed away.

If you use a weedkiller do so while the weeds are small, nothing looks worse than brown corpses which then have to be removed by hand. Under these circumstances why use a weedkiller anyway?

When visiting the garden centre to purchase plants make it your New Year resolution to only purchase those which are pot grown and not pot-bound. The only way to improve standards at garden centres is for us to resist buying rubbish.

Plants with a hard rootball and roots trailing into the standing area should never be entertained. Nor should those that have been recently potted, or as the garden centre operators say, "containerised", for these are likely to turn into failures.

Philip Swindells

WHAT'S NEW

Greensleeves is a startling green, maroon and yellow flowered Auricula.

Golden Cherry is the latest F1 hybrid yellow fruited cherry tomato.

Flare is a heavy cropping scarlet flowered runner bean.

Q What do I do with paperwhite narcissus in pots indoors which have finished flowering?

A They are unlikely to be much good for the garden, rather than throw them away keep well watered until the weather outdoors improves around March and plant them out.

Q My osteospermum looks rather unhappy. Will it survive the winter outside?

A During most winters osteospermum will survive, but if you have a single clump it would be best to lift it, place it in a deep tray and place in the cold frame, porch or cold greenhouse for the winter months. Replant in spring and take cuttings from fresh young growth.

Q I have an overgrown, but beautiful bulrush in my pond, when can I start divide it?

A The ideal time is during early April, just as it is starting into growth