While January is a rather cold and unforgiving month where most gardeners like to stay inside by the fire. Some of us have unfortunately made new years resolutions to spend even more time outside in the garden, despite the fact we already work outside and spend a vast proportion of our waking hours under the sky… So, with these unfortunate resolutions, we need to find ourselves a few jobs to get on with so we feel are getting ahead of the curve (or, in my case, keeping up with our resolutions)
Plants to Plant:
So long as the ground isn’t frozen solid you can get going with the hedge you've always wanted to run along the back of the garden. You can go straight in with cheep and cheerful bare root plants ("But how close to I plant them?!" I hear you say. Follow this link!) Instead, if you need instant gratification, choose slightly bigger potted or ball root hedging plants which by their nature establish quicker and are generally better plants. Planting them now will give them a chance to develop while dormant with minimal maintenance on your part. Please do however remember to start watering a bit come the spring and summer where they will need a more support over the first few years.
Now is an excellent time to plant currently dormant deciduous shrubs, especially if they have good spring colour. That way you won’t have long to go before you can start enjoying them. A personal favourite has to be the delicate bronze toned spring leaves of Cotinus ‘Grace’.
These colder, wetter months are the best time to plant trees. A small ornamental tree can really help to create focal points within your garden, along with providing a space for bird feeders, refuge for insects and as it grows shade, if we ever happen to see the sun that is.
Roses are best to be planted now too, especially if they are bare root. Our roses are potted, but as with all potted roses - ever - they are never overly well rooted in the pot. Plant them in the ground now to help create beautiful cottage garden beds. I particularly love the old fashioned feel of Rosa ‘Margaret Merril’
Seeds to sow
I’m sure that almost every garden blogger and seed seller shouts about sowing aubergines, tomatoes and peppers as early as you can in January. I personally take a rather alternative view that just because you can doesn’t mean you should! I find they are actually best being sown in a few months, I sow my personal crop first week of March. There is just not enough light at the moment for them to thrive and, after all, where do we all keep them? On the windowsill above a radiator at home? - leggy weak seedlings. On the kitchen windowsill? - Gets in the way, oh, and leggy and weak seedlings. In an unheated greenhouse? - Dead from being frozen….
You get the picture, theres not enough light and most of us have our homes far too warm for seedlings to grow which draws them out in to leggy, skinny seedlings. Very few people actually have access to a heated greenhouse or even luckier, a warm conservatory, so what's the point in using to see plants now that will be happier if sown later. Nevertheless, if you are absolutely insistent on sowing some of your summer veg now, you can get away with Aubergines come the end of the month as they are not as likely to bolt as tomatoes and peppers.
These are the seeds I sow through January, on my windowsill or even better just straight in to the ground of my unheated greenhouse or my vegetable garden.
Outside:
- Very early carrots such as Amsterdam Forcing under cloches or even burlap
- Broad Beans such as Aquadulce
- I plant out my garlic by the end of the month as I always miss the traditional planting day of the shortest day of the year!
- Pant out flat leaf parsley along edges of beds once I have worked out a general idea of where things are going.
Inside my unheated greenhouse
- Spicy salad leaves such as mizuna and rocket. They will come up when they are ready, sometimes all it takes is a mild day and the sun on the glass!
- Peas such as Meteor in gutters for early pea shoots. I then plant them out as early peas so I get more than one crop from the seeds!
- Sweet Peas in root trainer pots.
Inside (on my sitting room windowsill above a radiator, it works like a rather too hot DIY under heated propagator!)
- Winter lettuce such as Webs Wonderful to get them going a bit quicker
- Leeks for a very early batch such as Musselburgh
- Onions. I grow quite a few onions and I never grow them from sets. I particularly like Exhibition!
You can sow various cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli and lettuces. I personally don’t as I just don’t have the room once the season gets going!
Gardening for wildlife
Leaves! I had a long conversation about leaves with someone the other day. I personally prize them, I throw them all on to my garden beds and cover the soil as much as physically possible because they rot down over the year to create the most amazing soil. They also, and really most importantly, provide a hibernation spot for all the bugs you need to have a healthy garden. I also don’t cut back any perennials yet, it’s too early and the dead foliage gives the plants a little cover and helps protects them from the cold. (and again, hollow stems, hibernating bugs - You get the picture...) I do however keep a vague eye on them incase anything becomes mushy as that does need to be cleared or it will affect the plant to its detriment!
Keep your bird feeders full and if you can bring them in for a bit of a wash with soapy water because the RSPB suggests this can help with the spread of bird flu. While you are topping up the feeders, check any bird boxes you have installed and see if there are any other spaces where you could fit a bird box, rest of another feeder.
Remember that Christmas tree you bought from us this December? The one that’s now sat by the back door waiting for you to take it to the dump the weekend before Easter? Chop it up instead and bundle in up in to lengths. I then tie mine up with string (not the plastic sort) and find dark little corners for it in the garden where insects and small creatures will thank you for the shelter as the year progresses.
Plants to maintain
Prune your fruit trees! They will thank you for it! But also, now is also the time to prune your currants and gooseberries. I personally don’t bother with pruning my gooseberries as they fruit on last years buds (on old wood) I grow Hinnonmaki Red and Hinnonmaki Green. Both varieties are throughly productive bushes which I find do not get hugely congested.
Finally, get your climbers a tidy before the birds start nesting, particularly wilder ones like Mile-a-minute and Boston Ivy. The only ones I would avoid pruning now are the very early flowering clematis.
Really the jobs for January are all quite boring and many can be achieved in an afternoon. January is really all about planning for the year to come and doing essential maintenance like washing your glasshouse glass and washing your pots ready for a season bursting with plants.
