Now is the Time to Show Courage and Give Your Garden a Complete Reorganization.

A common observation in gardens that have been tended by the same individual or group is that the best ones never stay the same. People who truly love their plots shuffle things around all the time, with the same confidence and curiosity as those restless interior design lovers who change their curtains biannually with the changing of the clocks.

The longest I’ve ever had a plot is five years, but even in that time I feel as though I made several different gardens. The trial-and-error method of transplanting a specimen that isn’t terribly happy has been a stalwart of mine since I started pot cultivation on a minuscule terrace.

Yes, there’s a chance that relocating a plant may overwhelm or challenge it, but it’s also a free and relatively easy way of experimenting with new shapes, forms and ideas in your plot, no matter the size. And I’d contend that right now, this slow, quiet time between Christmas and January, between one year and the next, as the days slowly begin to lengthen again, is a beautifully symbolic time to do it.

If you’d rather be more formal, draw a plan of your borders, whether current or proposed, to help position specimens in their fresh location.

If you live in an area that has been damp to the point of boggy, or completely iced over, then postpone it until a calm Saturday in January instead. But if things are simply chilly, moist, and dormant out there, you’ve got the perfect conditions for rearranging your greenery, because many long-lived plants are resting. I recommend you start with the things that are bothering you a bit – whether it’s because you hope for more vigorous growth, they’re frustrated in a too-small pot or looking deathly – because the likelihood is that a new spot will only improve things.

One of my favourite things about gardening is the remarkably fluid process of how ideas develop once I’m out there. But if you’d rather be more formal, create a diagram of your beds, whether existing or planned, to help get things in their designated spot. Prepare the landing site before you lift anything: dig a hole that’s amply deep and larger than the anticipated rootball (look to the crown of the plant for a useful indicator), and add some mulch or well-rotted compost. Then dig up, place, and firm in firmly and give a thorough watering to celebrate the plant’s fresh abode.

Depending on the plant, you won’t see the fruits of your labour for a couple of weeks, but there’s a pleasure in this process, too. While you wait, you can enjoy your new planting arrangement through its skeletal structure; and if it’s not to your liking, have another shuffle before the season arrives. A fresh take on the garden for the coming year.