If you're the old-fashioned sort you'll have already finished your winter digging in the mild weather. If not, well, there's plenty of time.

Many younger gardeners suspect that winter digging is a bad thing. Others of all ages put their faith in rotovating in spring.

The famous 'no-dig' systems rely on two things: really good drainage and the soil being in good nick to start with. Soil is one area you really can't cut corners. And on heavy soils, winter digging is really still a vital necessity. By all means rotovate in spring to produce a tilth, but the soil needs those winter frosts to break up the structure. It kills pests too!

Other jobs you should be snatching the time to do in the short midwinter days include checking taller brassicas for wind-rock. After the recent blustery weather many wil have worked oose in the soil. This can lead to plants dying later, before you get a decent crop. Firm them back in with a boot and, if your site is open to the wind, consider staking with a stout cane and string.

If you have an asparagus bed you will have cut all the 'fern' down by now (won't you). Take the time to remove all the weeds, even the tiny ones, while they are young. They won't be easier to get out in the spring and you'll have less free time to do it.

If your asparagus bed had already got infested with perennial weeds, you have a good chance right now to clear it completely by spraying with glyphosate weedkiller. This will kill anything green it touches, so while the asparagus is dormant you can clobber the weeds. The same technique can be used to clear fruit bushes which have become infested with couch grass - but you MUST wait until ALL the leaves are off the bushes. Weedkiller that falls on brown bark will just wash harmlessly off.

Tying in these fruits is not a nice job on a cold winter's day - much better to do it now while the weather is mild, even if the fact that the leaves are still on the canes makes it a bit less of a neat job.

All the canes that fruited this summer should be cut out right to ground level, and burned (to destroy cane-boring pests and fungal diseases). The new growth can then be tied in neatly on the framework. There are several ways of arranging the long wangly shoots, the main thing is to spread them out and make sure they get as much sun as possible.

WINTER SQUASH It hasn't been a great year for winter squash like butternut and Crown Prince - we had a late cold spring, and a cool wet August is not what they like either.

Make the most of sunny autumn days. Place a tile, bricks or small paving slab under squash to reflect heat and warmth up; if all else fails, a piece of black weedproof fabric will do.

Keep a very close eye on the weather forecasts. Once there is a danger of frost, squash should be harvested. Take them in somewhhere frost free, but don't store them yet.

American gardeners are expert squash growers and they understand the importance of ripening ('curing', they call it) the squash after they have been cut. Lay your squash in a warm sunny place; in a dry greenhouse is good if you have space, or outside on a bench or table. Take them inside if frost is forecast. Give them as long in the sun as you can, till the skins go hard. This is a good sign.

Once the skins have hardened up, the flavour will be fully developed and the squash will keep better. Butternut are usually OK till Christmas if fully ripened - check your squash regularly in storage and use the least ripe first! The first sign of deterioration is usually seen where the stalk joins the squash.

If you want a squash which will keep right round till spring, try one of the blue-grey ones like widely-available Crown Prince, or the rarer Queensland Blue. In most seasons these do better than butternut anyway.

After the recent soaking rains, the soil is in a good condition to work. But if you've just taken on your plot you may ask, "What can I do right now?". If you have an area which is roughly cleared, or can create one, then sow green manure.

Green manures are short-lived crops which you dig in at the seedling stage. They add organic matter quickly and increase both the soil's fertility and its moisture-holding ability. You will notice a real improvement.

Rain, lovely rain! But wet weather brings out the slugs of course. Old-fashioned metaldehyde slug pellets (the usual sort you buy) is less effective in wet weather, as slugs are killed by dehydration and in rainy wetaher they can recover and crawl away. Bad news for birds, who can be killed by eating slugs containing metaldehyde, and bad news for your lettuces.

The new generation of 'organic' slug pellets gets round this problem. In years gone by, organic slug treatments were pretty ineffectual. Not so the new ones based on ferric salts. they are extremely good and actually work better in wet weather. They block the slug's gut and the slug, thinking it's had a good meal, goes somewhere quiet to digest. Except it dies instead. This is why you see no slime or corpses with the organic pellets. You'll find the bodies only if you look for them. The empty snail shells are easier to spot, of course.

Keeping newly-planted stuff and young seedlings from suffering in this weather isn't easy, especially if you work in the day and can only visit the plot in the evening.

You can help avoid plants drying out by erecting netting to give some shade and break the force of the drying wind. This is very useful for plants which don't like hot conditions, like lettuce for instance. The support doesn't need to be anything fancy as you aren't trying to completely enclose the plants, just give them some shade during the hottest part of the day and soften the effect of the wind.

For more tips on helping plants to cope with Kent's dry summers, click on Using Water Wisely to go to our advice section.

If using liquid feeds use them more dilute - half strength - to avoid damaging roots with too-strong solution in dry conditions.
Don't spray pesticides in the morning in bright sunlight - wait till evening or when it's cloudy.
Newly planted seedlings can be scorched by bright sunlight if you move them staright out of a shaded greenhouse - "harden them off" to sunlight just as you would to frost.

Take care of yourself too: don't get sun stroke!