We use the field metaphor quite a lot. You may have noticed. Here is the inconvenient part: living things require maintenance, and a website is no exception. A careful launch does not confer immunity from broken links.
In September we revisited every website we still look after. We found an out-of-date bus route, two people who had changed jobs, and a bakery collection time that had quietly moved by half an hour. Nothing dramatic. All of it useful to fix.
We also found a page we had been rather pleased with in 2023. Nobody needed it any more. We deleted it. This is a kind of design that rarely makes it into portfolios.
Winter aftercare means looking at the work with the people who live with it. We ask what they keep explaining, what they avoid updating, and what has stopped being true. Then we do the unglamorous bits.
The garden metaphor is not an excuse to sell endless gardening. A good handover should leave you able to do most of it yourself. We are here for the things that need a second pair of hands. And, occasionally, to suggest pulling something up.