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Something I’ve noticed in gardens that have been tended by the same person – or people – is that the best ones never stay the same. Gardeners with a deep passion for their plots shuffle things around all the time, with the same assurance and inquisitiveness as those constantly redecorating homeowners who change their curtains twice a year with the seasonal time shifts.

The longest I’ve ever had a plot is five years, but even in that span it seems as though I made several different gardens. The trial-and-error method of transplanting a specimen that isn’t terribly happy has been a trusted strategy since I started pot cultivation on a minuscule terrace.

Yes, there’s a risk that moving a plant may overwhelm or challenge it, but it’s also a costless and quite simple way of playing with new contours, structures, and concepts in your plot, no matter the size. And I’d argue that right now, this slow, quiet time between the holidays and the new year, as one calendar transitions to another, 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 existing or planned, to help get things in their fresh location.

If you live in an area that has been wet enough to become waterlogged, or completely iced over, then postpone it until a calm Saturday 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 perennials will be dormant. I recommend you start with the things that are causing you slight concern – whether it’s because you wish they were growing better, they’re frustrated in a too-small pot or appearing quite poorly – because the chances are that a different position will only improve things.

One of my favourite things about gardening is the almost free-flowing nature of how plans unfurl once I’m out there. But if you’d prefer a methodical plan, create a diagram of your beds, whether current or envisioned, to help place items in their new place. Prepare the landing site before you dig anything up: 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 dig up, place, and firm in firmly and give a good water to celebrate 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 satisfaction in this, too. While you wait, you can appreciate the revised layout through its bare-bones framework; and if it’s not working for you, have another shuffle before spring comes. A fresh take on the garden for the new year.