What to do in the garden in January: inspect stored apples

Last year's was an unusual apple harvest, with some trees producing nothing at all and others a bumper crop ripe three weeks early. The latter situation called for a period of neighbourly largesse followed by the careful business of storage, with the apples individually spaced on slatted timber shelves in the silent sanctum of a dark and frost-free shed. Remember to go and look over the little dears periodically, not only to bring them in for eating (above) as they ripen (each cultivar has its season), but also to remove any that rot before the pestilence spreads to the rest.