Gardening Jobs for January

Gardening Jobs for January

January is a great time to get things done in the garden while everything else has slowed down, particularly border weeds, but here are a few things to be going on with:

Your soil

If you're new to gardening or your garden, get to know your soil. This is the bedrock of a good garden and happy, healthy plants, so what type of soil do you have? Is it heavy wet clay soil, light free-draining soil with lots of stones, or a perfect balance in between the two, called Loam? While clay is an utter pain the the winter and mid summer, it has the benefit of holding onto nutrients. Free-draining sandy, stony soil is no problem in the winter, but you will have to add a lot of organic matter and 'food' to really boost the ground for stronger, healthier plants. Adding good amounts of organic compost to clay soil will really help to open up the structure, and consequently help your plants to thrive

Test your soil. Find out the PH of your soil with a testing kit, available online or in your nearest garden centre. This will tell you if you have an alkaline or acidic soil or a neutral one, this knowledge will help you to avoid buying plants that just won't be happy in your garden!

If your soil is frozen solid, you can wheelbarrow a good amount of compost onto the ground and wait for it to thaw, this will save time and won't be as messy, just avoid walking on a frosted lawn, as this will damage it and you'll end up with brown footprints and wheel marks on the lawn.

Trees, Shrubs and Flower Borders

Some gardeners like to clear dead leaves off a border, but this is worm food; leaves on a border will stimulate worms, which will aerate the border. However, not too thick a layer as this can harbour disease. Dig out those weeds while everything is dormant and get ready for Spring!

If you have deciduous trees or shrubs in the wrong position in your garden, now is a good time to move them, however, be aware that this is likely to be back braking work! You will need to dig up as much of the root system as you can with the soil around it, do not underestimate the work involved, and warm up your muscles first!

A job I've been doing today and will continue over the next couple of weeks is to cut all the spotted, tatty leaves off the Hellebore plants, the flower buds are appearing and pruning away the leaves will show off the flowers, and they'll be happier for it.

Lift and split any clumps of herbaceous plants to spread them around your garden, just don't do this job in frosted or very cold, wet soil.

Thinking of planting a hedge? Now's a great time to plant a deciduous variety, Beech or Hornbeam are English favourites. A cheap way to plant a hedge is to use 'whips' young, bareroot plants sold in bundles. Prepare your ground well, mark out the area to be planted, and dig two spades width and one spade deep, if the area has never been dug before, you should 'double-dig the trench, click here for the RHS web page how-to: RHS website on double digging.

The Orchard

You still have time to prune your apple and pear trees as they are still dormant, you can head them back to the size you want and open the canopy to allow air and sunlight in, but don’t prune any stone fruit trees, as they can suffer from disease.

The Veg Garden

Onions, Garlic and Broad Beans can all be sown into the ground in January. Sow onions either in sets or seeds, and sow in a well-prepared weed-free, well-drained soil. Garlic and Broad Beans also need good free-draining soil and look for a winter planting variety.

December and January are the best times to force Rhubarb, start now and you could be enjoying Rhubarb crumble and custard at the end of March, yummy. If you don’t have a large heavy pot you can use a bucket weighed down with bricks, just mulch the Rhubarb crown with some good compost first and be sure to exclude all light from the Rhubarb.

The Tool Shed

Clean and sharpen your tools, lawnmower blades, secateurs, hoes etc, an extremely important task which is often forgotten, particularly your secateurs and lawnmower blades! Good maintenance goes a long way.

Your Lawn

Moss will start to encroach now, and you’d be well advised to treat this with a liquid iron feed, don’t leave it till spring!

Aeration is key to a good-quality lawn, and hollow-tine aeration is the best method, removing cores from your lawn, this can be done manually with a coring tool (hard work) you can hire a machine to do it, usually around a £100 per day, or call in a professional. Over time soil becomes compacted, either by humans or wet weather, squeezing out essential oxygen and water for the roots, aeration equals healthy soil, and healthy soil equals healthy grass. Brush away worm casts, as these are good, fertilised soil, and left they will become a weed seed bed.

Walk your lawn and check out the hollows or bumps, if the ground is relatively dry and frost free, it's a good time to rectify these issues. If the area is reasonably small, cut an H-shaped cut in the area, carefully peel back the turf, then either remove some soil (from a bump) or add some topsoil (to a hollow) replace the turf and thump back down.

I hope you've enjoyed this short post on January gardening tips, please pop back for February's jobs.

Paul Hoff