Staying at home for the holidays? Seize the opportunity to spruce up your garden so that it looks its best when you receive visitors for all your festive celebrations.

Here are a few pointers to get you started:

• Clip all your hedges – trim them on top and neaten the base too, so that they don’t collect all kinds of garden debris like fallen leaves and clippings.
• Remove the lower branches of shade trees so that guests can sit under the trees and enjoy their shade.
• Give your lawn some TLC by feeding it with a handful of 2:3:2 per square metre. Water well before and after feeding. Pull out any large weeds by hand and give it a good mow on the 23rd of December so that it looks its best on Christmas Day.
• Add instant colour to borders, hanging baskets and pots with summer-flowering annuals like petunia, dianthus, celosia, impatiens, marigold and begonia.
• Clean ponds and water features and plant a few new water lilies and water plants – they’re at their prime at this time of the year.
• Light up your garden with bamboo torches along pathways and other areas you want to highlight. Also try stringing fairy lights in trees close to outdoor patios or balconies.
• Sort out weeds growing in between paving stones by dousing them with boiling water on a hot day.
• Top up any graveled areas with a new supply of gravel (remember to order a load before the building suppliers close for the holidays).