If I empty my pots from the summer, what (if anything) can I put in over winter?

[newtonupontheheath]

Going out in the garden later today to empty some pots- strawberry plants (dead) picking last green tomatoes (I have to get rid of the plants, yes?) hanging basket and window boxes.
Can I out anything in the same pots (cheaply)? Or can I keep the same soil for next year? We are planning on raised beds so would like to reuse these pots as won't be using them for tomatoes etc again next year

I sometimes take out annuals, leaving soil in pots (as an economy) and put in good old reliable winter pansies until spring, when I start again with fresh compost, etc.

After composting old tomato plants, which I grow in Grow Bags in this tiny garden, I usually empty out the soil onto a border to help soil conditioning, but it's not really good enough to produce much for another full season.

Raised beds are a good idea, and we used to get away without watering, once plants were established.

I'm going to buy a Nandina for my "pot".

It's not actually a pot. It's an aged gardening...spraying thingie, made of copper that has aged to a lovely green. Think it will make a happy, bright visual spot all winter with the red popping out the top of it.

I'm going to do Monty Don's thing of layering spring bulbs and topping with winter pansies. I love seeing bulbs peeping through in early spring.

I always do cyclamen and pansies and under plant with tulip bulbs.

Hmm, never grown cyclamen. Do they flower for long? Will they last unti the tulips come through?

Mine usually do :) winter primroses are another thing you could use but I find they look tatty for ages after it rains.

Cyclamen are probably flowering now, but autumn ones are starting to 'go over' - but leaving very attractive, marbled leaves. There are probably ones that flower at different times though, like spring.

I'll copy my cyclamen information I just put on another 'thread':

Cyclamen corms can be expensive, but after they flower and set seed, the seed capsules will end up on thin, curly stems. They will then split open, and the sticky seeds inside can be scattered on the soil round about, and in a couple of years will be new plants. We have THOUSANDS that way!

I assume you know to plant cyclamen on the surface of the soil, and not bury them or they will rot.

Methe - I cut all the leaves off primroses after flowering, and they mostly survive; some may even have a second flush of flowers.

Oh, OP - forgot -

Old compost can have bugs/ disease in it, so fresh compost is best.

Or mix with soil and fertiliser, and put in plants that are not too valuable or precious.

Pansies, cyclamen, ivy, primroses, sweet William (?), spring bulbs, violas.