Jobs around the Garden…
- January is the time to prune fruit trees/bushes.
- Get a head start with potatoes by “chitting” them now.
- Cover areas in the vegetable patch with cloches to warm the soil for early sowings.
- Sow early vegetables, and flower seeds which can be kept indoors.
- Dead head flowering plants in your containers to prolong the show.
- Now is the time to force rhubarb. Select a root and mulch with garden compost, cover with a bucket or a special rhubarb forcer.
- Established trees can be fed with Growmore.
Flowers to sow…
You don’t need a greenhouse to start these seeds, a bright windowsill will suffice.
- Antirrhinum
- Begonia
- Dianthus
- Gazania
- Geranium
- Lobelia
- Pansies
- Sweet Pea
Vegetables to grow…
For an early start in the vegetable garden sow:
- Broad Beans (Aquadulce Claudia)
- Celeriac
- Celery
- Onions (Ailsa Craig)
- Salad Leaves
- Spinach
Wildlife Gardening in January…
- Put out bird food on the ground, in feeders and on bird tables.
- Keep the bird bath topped up and make sure it isn’t frozen.
- If you have a wildlife pond stop it from freezing over by using a float.
- Put out food for hedgehogs – not bread and milk – you can use hedgehog food from wildlife food suppliers or they can also have tinned dog or cat food and crushed dog biscuits or cat biscuits.
- Make a shelter for wildlife from logs, rocks and piles of leaves.
