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Something I’ve noticed in gardens that have been tended by the same individual or group is that the finest examples rarely remain 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 swap out their drapes biannually with the changing of the clocks.

The most extended period I've managed a plot is five years, but even in that span it seems as though I made a multitude of distinct spaces. The trial-and-error method of transplanting a specimen that isn’t terribly happy has been a stalwart of mine since I started container gardening on a minuscule terrace.

Yes, there’s a risk that moving 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 argue that right now, this slow, quiet time between Christmas and January, between one year and the next, as the days gradually start to stretch out again, is a symbolically lovely time to do it.

If you’d rather be more formal, sketch your beds, whether current or proposed, to help get things in their fresh location.

If you live in an area that has been wet enough to become waterlogged, or frozen solid, then postpone it until a quiet weekend in January instead. But if things are simply chilly, moist, and dormant out there, you’ve got the ideal circumstances 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 chances are that a new spot will only enhance their situation.

One of my favourite things about gardening is the almost free-flowing nature of how ideas develop once I’m out there. But if you’d rather be more formal, draw up a sketch of your beds, whether existing or planned, to help get things in their designated spot. Ready the new planting hole before you lift anything: excavate a space that’s generously deep and larger than the anticipated rootball (look to the crown of the plant for a good guide), and add some organic matter or mature compost. Then lift, plonk, bed down firmly and give a thorough watering to mark the plant’s fresh abode.

Depending on the plant, you won’t see the results of your work 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 spring comes. A fresh take on the garden for the new year.