The new year brings an opportunity for a winter spruce at the nursery (no tree pun intended!). While the trees are dormant and the days are short, we can focus on cleaning down from last year’s growing efforts and look forward to the new season approaching.

Some time spent now cleaning pots, cell trays and benches will help prevent pests and diseases, as well as tidying propagation areas and weeding raised beds will prepare us for planting out in spring.

This is also a good time to reflect on what grew well last year and how we’ll do things differently this year. Whether that’s storing seed more effectively to improve germination rates, altering irrigation to harness more rainwater, or rejigging the beds to maximise capacity.

We’re taking extra measures to protect thousands of acorns we collected last autumn during the incredible mast year, using wire and mesh to cover the cells and raised beds to deter mice and Jays from feasting on them before they’ve sprouted.

With everything in order, we’re ready for the nursery to burst into life and another exciting growing season in 2026.