Does anyone else ever feel caught up in the ‘shoulds’? What we should be doing on our social channels, how we should be running our businesses, our houses, our lives even down to what we should be eating and wearing.

It doesn’t stop with lifestyle, so many articles and social media posts talk about what we ‘should’ be doing in our gardens this month and as you can probably guess, I take umbrage with the word ‘should’. I find it to be very forceful and demanding, pressured even, but also I don’t like the idea of being allocated, what quite frankly are unnecessary jobs, in this already difficult time of year.

How do you feel about gardening in January?

By all means, get outside and take a stroll around your outdoor space, noting plants of interest, what is and isn’t looking good, but then use those cosy fireside evenings to plot and plan. Do research, make lists and action points for you and your garden in the coming year. Then when the weather warms you will be ready and armed to get your garden prepared for the spring and summer. Think of it as a goal setting exercise for your plants, a vision board to help manifest your wildest garden dreams.

With so many experts in so many fields promoting their methods and advice - yes, I am very aware that I have just suggested garden planning nights in front of the fire, but I meant it just as that, a suggestion - when do we really get the time to strip it back to basics and think about what we really want. What about our own preferences and opinions?

Caroline Rowland, esteemed founder of 91 magazine (https://www.91magazine.co.uk) in her most recent newsletter talked about falling out of love with Instagram and how a reader’s comment on her instagram page reminded her of why she loved the platform in the first place - for photography - and I wholeheartedly agree with her. Over the years I have succumbed to the trends on various social media, inevitably failing in my quest to consistently follow a monthly plan, or post the ‘right’ content dictated by the ever changing algorithms. It just didn’t sit naturally with me and in fact my lack of ability to keep up caused a lot of stress, so I decided to return to what flowed easiest for me, which created a more organic authentic social media presence.

I digress, but the point I was making can also be applied to your approach to gardening this year. Take a fresh look, use January as a chance to reset, reframe and really think about what makes you happy in your garden, start doing what you want, the way you want to do it. With the unpredictable weather, the seasons we grew up with are no longer the same, open up the opportunity by observing and listening to your plants to really tune in to their needs. Learn to garden on instinct, with books and the internet as a guide, a place to turn to for advice not instructions. The chances are your garden will look all the better for it and you will feel it too.

(Just a suggestion mind) ;)