You might have begun running your winter heating to keep you comfortable inside but there are still plenty of reasons to head outdoors and get your daily dose of vitamin D in the veggie patch!
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Many will have had their first frosts for the season.
Some of you will have successfully saved your most vulnerable summer veggies like zucchini and tomatoes with frost protection and they may still be producing, albeit more slowly.
Covering plants is the simplest, most practical way to do this.
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Gardeners use sheets, blankets, plastic, frost fleece, cardboard boxes, large round garbage cans and anything else that they can get their hands on to protect plants for a cold night.
If the leaves of your summer vegies have been frosted and become something akin to mush, remove them to the compost heap to give you space for planting more winter vegies.
Pomegranates (Punica granatum) are deciduous shrubs which grow best in a warm sunny spot and are very drought resistant and heat-tolerant but set fruit better after a cold winter - perfect for New England.
They will grow better with a good supply of water in spring which will improve growth and fruit set.
Pomegranates may flower and fruit several times in spring and into summer and so can be ripe and ready to harvest from mid-summer onwards.
Keep alert for any fruits that have split; they are fully ripe and need to be harvested before the ants or birds get to them, or before any rain gets into them and ruins them.
Pomegranates can be picked before they are fully mature and stored successfully for a couple of months in a dark, cool place or in the fridge.
Have a think about what other types of fruit trees you might wish to plant, and get your order to buy them bare-rooted in now.
Your favourite local nursery can give you any advice on the best varieties for our climate and for the type of fruit you are after.
Harvest late season apples and pears and pick up any lying on the ground to reduce coddling moth infestations.
Most berries will have finished fruiting and can be pruned now.
Autumn fruiting raspberries can simply be cut back to ground level, but summer fruiting raspberries and blackberries should only have old canes removed.
Keep canes that formed over summer for next season.
