THE festive season leaves us so little time for gardening -- but here are some therapeutic tips from the RHS advisory team at Wisley.

Have a wander around your garden at Christmas and note what is in flower, for year-to-year comparisons. While you're there, replace any faded labels as you go.

Houseplants may have been thrust from hothouse warmth, humidity and high light levels into darker, drier homes, with an interval of draughty garden centres and cold cars.

They need looking after while they adjust, avoiding fluctuating temperatures and hot, dry centrally heated rooms. Standing them on a tray of damp gravel can help create a humid atmosphere around their leaves.

Landscape gardeners are short of work around Christmas, so if you're contemplating new paths, patios, decking or pools, now is the time to book them.

While winter work makes much mess, you have several months to repair the damage so the garden looks good in time for spring.

You can do the work yourself and burn off some calories. But if you wish to hire some powered equipment, book early as other gardeners are likely to have the same idea.

Turn over the contents of your compost bin. You can empty and refill it after mixing, which promotes faster rotting and better quality compost.

Algae, lichen and slime growing on trees and paving occur in winter where air flow is poor and shade excessive, and where affected trees are not growing well. Pruning to reduce shade and improve air flow can help. Slippery paving can be cleaned with a pressure washer or patio cleaning material. However, growth on trees is not harmful and is hard to remove, so it is best tolerated and will largely disappear in summer.

Encourage vigorous growth by feeding, mulching and watering. Once an affected plant regains vigour, badly affected shoots can be pruned out at the correct time of year.

It's a long time until spring, so cheer yourself up and add flavour to food with windowsill crops of mustard and cress.

These can be grown on sheets of absorbent paper on windowsills in about 14 days. Remember, cress takes two or three days longer to reach harvest than mustard. Use seed sold for the purpose - and delegate the job to the children.

And if the weather is too cold or wet to venture outside, you can always escape to the greenhouse, if you're lucky enough to have one.

It can provide respite from the cacophony of crackers, excessive food and drink and the same old trash on the telly.

Time can be spent on the contemplation and planning for the year ahead, so you could take a few catalogues with you to give you ideas for the New Year. And a notebook to jot them down.

PLANT OF THE WEEK - CHRISTMAS cactus (Zygocactus truncatus) provide a mass of exotic reds, vibrant pinks and purples in the house just when you need them, they need little attention and are one of the most rewarding winter houseplants. They need a bright spot, but shade from the hot midday sun. A west-facing windowsill is ideal.

These little beauties hate sudden changes in temperature, so it's best to remove them from window ledges during a really cold snap and if you do leave them there make sure the leaves aren't touching the window.

It needs feeding and watering regularly between March and October during the growing period, but in the winter the best care is to leave it alone and avoid overwatering.

When you water it, don't pour over the compost at the top of the plant - but into the pot's container, bowl or saucer and sit it there for a short time before emptying out the excess.

Z. Truncatus blooms between November and late January and comes in white, pink, red or purple. You should be able to buy them in bud from your local garden centre.

GARDENING CHORES

Prune greenhouse vines while completely dormant.

Take cuttings from greenhouse chrysanthemums.

Prune old canes on autumn-fruiting raspberries down to soil level.

Clean houseplants -- sponge shiny-leaved types or dust hairy leaves with a fine paintbrush.

Check stores of crops and discard any showing signs of disease.

Pinch the growing tips of sweet peas when stems reach around 3in (7.5cm).

If autumn-planted strawberries have become loose, work a little fine compost around the collar and firm back in.