I have been out hacking and slashing lately – that green wheelie bin doesn’t hold much at this time of year.

I hope you have been keeping abreast of the kerfuffle going on at Wiltshire Council about exactly what the future of the green wheelie bin may be. In its own hacking and slashing, the council will decide whether it should be a) scrapped b) only collected for nine months of the year c) only collected for seven months of the year or d) subject to an annual fee. The so-called consultation period is over and you were lucky if you knew there actually was one. The decision rests in the hands of Trowbridge.

Back to my own hacking and slashing – I have cut down those herbaceous plants that go ‘soft’ over winter, such as the hardy geraniums and the Iris sibiricas, but have left those with a bit more structure to them like Echinacea. This is in the hope that when we get those morning frosts, they will look like the many wonderful photographs that grace the pages of magazines. I am not holding my breath, however.

Should you be wielding the secateurs in a frenzy of activity yourself, I caution you to restraint. This is NOT the time for serious pruning. You may read that pruning should take place once a shrub has finished flowering as a general rule.

But our weather is so inconsistent over autumn and winter that those late-flowering shrubs need to be left alone until spring. You could go in there, cut hard back, then see a strangely mild spell so the plant uses up its energy making new growth.

Follow this with a sudden cold snap and the whole lot is killed off. Certainly you can have a half-hearted tidy-up if you want to, but leave the serious stuff until spring.

Early flowering shrubs such as Forsythia, Viburnum x bodnantense and Lonicera fragrantissima should be avoided altogether. If you start cutting them back now you will be cutting off all of next year’s flowers so think on! With evergreens such as Choisya, you are too late anyway. These are best cut back in the summer and autumn.

Should you be having a go at roses, you could always use your cutback stems as hardwood cuttings and slap them in the ground or in a pot of free-draining compost to give them a chance to root.

Cut the soft tops out completely down to a leaf joint at an angle – cut the bottom off straight and about 6-8in down the stem. The idea is you will recognise which way up you need to plant the thing and the sloped top will mean rain and/or snow will not sit on the top of the cutting.

In preparation for the cold, if you have an unheated greenhouse in which you intend to overwinter things, it would be a good idea to line it with bubblewrap to keep the worst of the weather out.

You can also bubblewrap any pots in which you have permanent planting and make sure you take away any saucers from underneath and stand the pot on feet or gravel to ensure decent drainage. Have fleece to hand for anything that is not totally hardy.