The days are the shortest of the year. We might get rain, but we can also get a week or two of hot, dry Santa Ana winds. Be prepared for dry conditions and be prepared for big rainstorms.

There’s no need to put the garden to bed for winter (both a blessing and a curse). We don’t have to “unplant,” which is great, but in our year-round gardening climate, we gardeners never get any down time either. So, grab a warm jacket and head into the garden to focus on cleaning, planting, pruning and preparing for spring.

1. Be sure to clean your rain gutters. When gutters are filled with leaves and debris, there’s no room for them to divert water from your roof so the water just flows over the edges, onto plants below, often beating them up. What comes out of the gutter is pretty well decomposed, so unless it contains paint or other non-organic materials, add it to your compost pile or spread it around the garden.

2. Have an arborist evaluate your trees for dead or weakened branches that could drop and for poorly rooted trees that could topple in a big storm. Make this an annual task and work only with a certified arborist who commits to being on site while work is being done on your trees.

3. Install swales and redirect downspouts to the swales. Allow water to pool while it absorbs into the surrounding soil. Bank the water now for long-term withdrawal by your plants’ roots in spring.

4. Since rain barrels have a limited volume, think about connecting several in a daisy chain. Better yet, install a high-capacity cistern to hold rainwater either above or below ground.

5. When you set up your water capture systems, remember to include a diversion valve. Pollutants and debris land on the roof all through the dry season. That first rainfall rinses most of it off, so let the first flush go down the drain; collect the rain that falls after that.

6. While collecting water is important, don’t let it accumulate in dishes under potted plants, in buckets waiting for other uses or in other places where constant moisture can drown plant roots or become a mosquito nursery.

7. Check your irrigation controller to be sure it is on the reduced winter schedule. In the cooler, shorter days, plants need very little extra water, especially when it rains.

8. When Santa Ana winds are in the forecast, water deep and long the day before. At all other times, water only if it hasn’t rained for a while, and if, when you poke your finger into the soil, it’s dry to the second knuckle.

9. Cooler, wetter weather is a great time to work in the garden, but not during or just after a rain. Standing on wet soil compacts the soil. Wait a few days before you venture into the garden.

10. Take care not to overwater succulents. If you water them too much, they can rot.

11. Plant natives such as lemonade berry (Rhus integrifolia), white flowering currant (Ribes indecorum), California lilac (Ceanothus species), Catalina ironwood tree (Lyonothamnus floribundus) and different kinds of perennial monkey flower (Mimulus species). These tough natives will get established now so they can tolerate next summer’s heat and drought.

12. Except at high elevations, continue to plant proteas and their relatives: Grevilleas, pincushions (Leucospermum) and conebushes (Leucadendron). These low-water plants from Australia and South Africa have fantastic, brightly colored flowers that attract hummingbirds. They are drought tolerant and low maintenance as well.

13. Look to the hills now that native plants are in active growth cycle. What’s green? That’s what to plant.

14. Prune deciduous fruit trees now. Do your homework first so you know which part of the branches will make next year’s fruit — it differs on each kind of tree. Apple trees, for example, grow short side spurs where the fruits develop. Pluots fruit along the length of their branches. Figs make fruit at the tips of branches. If you accidentally cut off the wrong part, you’ll have no fruit next year.

15. Use sharp tools. Sharp tools make clean cuts and clean cuts are healthy cuts. If your pruning shears shred branches, take them to be sharpened.

16. Cut in the right spot. Follow each branch to where it attaches to the trunk or to the next larger branch. Notice the swelling at the base of the branch? That’s called the branch collar. When you cut, cut all the way back to the branch collar. The goal is to leave no stubs, while taking care to leaving the branch collar intact.

17. Work clean. Disinfecting pruning shears, saws, loppers, etc. between plants stops the spread of diseases and pathogens from one tree to the next. I use spray bathroom disinfectant to clean all of my tools. When I am done for the day, my tools get sprayed again and dried, and then I lubricate the moving parts before I put the tools away.

18. Prune and spray roses now. In our climate, there’s no need to prune roses down to nubs. The more branches, the more flowers, so let your rosebushes grow large.

19. After you prune apples, pears and deciduous stone fruits like peaches and nectarines, strip off any remaining leaves. Spray to kill overwintering insects, bacteria and fungi.

20. Liquid copper spray kills the fungus responsible for the dreaded peach leaf curl. Spray once, wait two weeks, then spray again. Spray a third time for best results.

21. Spray deciduous fruit trees with horticultural oil, too, to suffocate scale, whiteflies, mealy bugs and other tiny pests that overwinter in the bark.

22. Every time you spray, follow the label directions. Spray all the branches and trunks, from tips to base. The better the coverage, the better for the trees and for next year’s crops.

23. Visit your favorite nursery to reserve bare-root fruit trees and shrubs that arrive next month: blueberries, peaches, apples, nectarines, pears, apricots and more.

24. Get planting! Plant winter root vegetable seeds now: beets, turnips, radishes, carrots, rutabagas, parsnips. Plant greens and cabbage family plants from seed or seedling: Lettuce, spinach, kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, rapini, broccoli, etc. Plant fava beans, fennel and parsley from seed. Plant leeks, onions, celery plants from seed or seedling.

25. In the grocery store, you buy entire heads of lettuce and big bundles of greens and herbs. In your garden, simply cut off as much as you need, and let the plants continue to grow. You’ll be amazed at how much a single plant actually produces over its lifespan.

26. Have you protected cold-sensitive plants yet? If your garden gets to freezing or below, protect cold sensitive plants like Plumeria, some bromeliads, some kinds of succulents, etc. Move them under the eaves (if in pots) or under the dense cover of an evergreen tree. Cover potted or in-ground plants with floating row cover (not plastic). Use clothespins to secure the cover in place.

27. Watch for the winter’s first frost. Our gardens don’t get hard frosts, but plants from coast to mountains can suffer frost damage on a cold night.

28. Once a plant is damaged by frost, resist the urge to cut off damaged leaves, branches, etc. They may be unsightly but they protect the rest of the plant from the next freeze. Wait until February or March, after the season’s last frost, and then cut them off.

29. Clean up the garden. Many plants accumulate dead, brown branches underneath healthy green growth. This is a good time to figure out what is still healthy and living, and what is dead. Cut out the dead and cut back the living so the plant will resprout healthy and green next spring.

30. Get the most from your holiday poinsettias. Remove the fancy foil as soon as you get it home. Be sure the pot has drainage holes. If it doesn’t, move the plant to a pot that drains. Keep your poinsettias in a brightly lit room away from the heater vent and away from a cold window. Water enough to keep the soil damp but not wet. Don’t worry about fertilizing until after the holidays.

31. Monitor house plants now. With the heat on indoors, potting soil dries out quickly. Feel the potting soil every few days so you can keep it damp. A humidifier helps keep indoor air from drying out so much that the plants desiccate.

Sterman is a garden designer and writer; www.waterwisegardener.com.

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