Winter arrived with vengeance well before Christmas — the sting in the tail of the year. A thick layer of snow descended in daylight hours and soon 15 inches of snow covered my garden. That’s the deepest snow I’ve ever seen in my life.

Snow is a mixture of good news and bad for the garden, as so much is in life. A thick layer protects perennial plants that have retreated underground from harsh temperatures. It suits bulbs too: they generally welcome the snow melt once better weather arrives. However, evergreen plants can suffer. The weight of the snow on the leaves causes damage, and hedges can become misshapen and topiary can change shape. My answer is to emerge armed with a broom (like an Oxfordshire version of Nora Batty) and bash the snow off.

Don’t be too depressed! Some plants welcome a cold period of dormancy, and when spring arrives they awake refreshed and raring to go. Last year my roses and peonies performed better than ever. Tulips root better in cold conditions and fruit trees make better fruit buds.

The real casualties can be evergreen plants. As soon as snow strikes you need to bash it off the branches. If some conifers or hedges have become misshapen already, bind them up with garden twine and canes and leave them in place for three to six months. You can generally reshape them. Check all your evergreens once the weather improves and remove any damaged branches.

As soon as you see that eerie grey light in the bedroom, peculiar to snowy days, get straight out and act. A rake handle or a broom handle does the job well when the great sugar shaker in the sky starts to tremble.

Some of my shrubs suffered damage last year and I had do some emergency first aid while I was snowed in. One hamamelis had split at the base and I borrowed the one-inch bandage that’s been lurking in the medical kit for decades. I made a small splint and fixed the bandage round the split branch so that it was back in place. Carried away with playing doctors and nurses, I spread Vaseline over the bandage and used canes to support the branch. My hamamelis knitted back together again.

Pinned into my village I have been forced to walk along the lanes to avoid becoming completely housebound.

There are some wonderful evergreens holding their own in the snow. There’s a bright Highclere holly with round, dark-green leaves irregularly splashed in rich yellow. It’s Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Belgica Aurea’ and these are hybrids between our prickly native holly (Ilex aquifolium) and a less than hardy holly from the Azores — I. perado. They are known as Highclere hollies because they were first identified there in 1836 by Loudon.

It wasn’t a deliberate cross; it arrived courtesy of the bees, and it wasn’t exclusive either. It arose elsewhere. Even better is a plain-green holly with huge camellia-like leaves, Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Camelliifolia’ —and there are still some red berries left surprisingly.