Jobs for January – a quiet month in the garden?


Take the Christmas tree to a local authority recycling scheme

Winter-prune wisteria and other vigorous climbers. It’s your last chance to prune grape vines before the sap starts rising

If you haven’t done so already, prevent your pond freezing over, using floats if you don’t have a pond heater

Insulate outdoor taps to prevent freezing

When the ground isn’t frozen, plant bareroot plants. Move deciduous trees or shrubs that are in the wrong position

Check tree ties and stakes

Hoe out weed seedlings, remembering those around the base of young trees

Clear the crowns of plants of damp leaves.

Take hardwood cuttings of shrubs including Hydrangea, Cornus, Rosa and Salix

Take root cuttings of Papaver orientale, Verbas***, Phlox and Acanthus

Aerate lawns to improve drainage

Repair lawn edges, especially around flower and shrub beds

Barrow organic matter onto frozen ground. An ideal job that will save you time later is spreading out well-rotted manure or garden compost. The barrow can be wheeled over the soil without getting too caked in mud at the moment. Don’t take the barrow over the lawn though: put down planks to protect it.

Check that protective mulches and blankets over frost-tender plants and pots have not been disturbed by the snow.


The Vegetable Garden



Dig unprepared areas of the kitchen garden. The sooner cultivation is completed, the better, to allow the winter weather to break down large clods of earth, improving the soil and making it easier to work in the spring.


Prune apples and pears grown as freestanding trees and bushes

Check stores fruit and veg fo signs of rot, removing any that are damaged

For really early crops, start off lettuces, summer brassicas, radishes, round carrots, spinach, salad onions and turnips on the windowsill. Grow them on in the greenhouse and plant out in February

Plan ahead and chit early potatoes

Force rhubarb