What do I mean by garden tasks? Well It’s finally a new year and I don’t know about you but as soon as Christmas is over I get itchy fingers to get them back in the soil and growing again.
At this time of year, it’s cold and wet here so it’s not always easy to get out in the soil quite yet so January is my planning month.
Essential garden tasks for January
- Planning sheets and sowing calendar
- Start A Family Vegetable Garden
- Grow veg in pots
- 12 plants to grow.
- No excuses, find time, space and budget to grow your own.
Caring For Tools Is A Must Do Garden Task
January is also the perfect time to gather any tools you have and give them a good sharpen, clean and oil.
Preparing these now by cleaning off dirt and possiblepeat or virus residue, sharpening them and oiling means garden jobs for the rest of the year are so much easier. It also means when things get busy later in the season, you don’t have to take time then to fix your tools. Here’s a list of our favourite tools.
Feeding Your Garden Wildlife Is A Garden Task Worth Doing
Attracting birds and wildlife to your vegetable garden, no matter how small helps to deter pests and stop them becoming a problem but inviting in the predators that munch on them.
Here are some of our best wildlife ideas.
Garden Task-What to start sowing in January
In January there’s not a lot to sow here in the UK as it’s cold and the light levels are super low But there’s a few things you can do now to get a jump on spring
Why not try to grow some scraps from your kitchen, yes you read that right there are many vegetables like lettuce, cabbage, onions and fennel that will regrow from their left overs. Have a read of this post to find out more.
Seeds to sow now…
- Spring cabbage can still be sown.
- Cauliflower
- Peas
- Peppers
- Chilli
- Aubergine
- Sweetpea
- Early peas
- Broad beans
- Leeks
If you already have a vegetable garden you should be able to
Harvest your crops
- Fartichokes
- Parsnip
- Swede
- Leeks
- Winter Brassicas
A Useful Garden Task For January Getting Rid Of Weeds Now
Weeding is an important winter gardening task – by now, most annual weeds have died away, winter is a great time to get rid of perennial weeds.
Using Added Protection Is A Worth while Garden Task.
Seeds need heat to germinate so the cold frozen soil in a winter garden isn’t the best place to begin seeds. Use a cold frame to increase the temperature to a level seeds and plants can be a little more protected from the elements. A perfect environment to start or over winter hardy plants.
A cold frame is a sturdy box that has a plastic or glass top so the sun’s rays can help to heat the box. It keeps the plants inside a few degrees warmer than without it and away from chilling winds and it’s great for protecting plants over winter as well as for giving extra room for raising seedlings and plants throughout the season.
Just make sure raise the lid to ventilate on warmer days so your plants don’t get frazzled.
You can also utilize your windowsills and sow lots of yummy tender plants inside such as chillies, aubergine etc.
A Garden Tasks We Recommend Is To Spend Time Now To Repair And mend
If you have a greenhouse, an important January garden task is to get it ready for spring. On a warm day, clear your greenhouse of all old plant material that could be harbouring diseases, scrub the floors and the glass, disinfect everything and replenish the soil.
This will give you a clean slate to work from in the spring and get rid of any lingering pests.
Gather Pots And Prepare For Sowing Is Must Do Garden Tasks.
Usually, I’d be out scrubbing all my pots to rid them of soil, bugs and any nasty left overs so they are ready to be sowed in when needed. However, this year we are aiming to use all recycled materials instead of buying any new plastic pots.
We have collected newspapers, loo roll tubes, the kids mini crisps tubs, noodle pots as well as soda bottles and milk jugs bottoms. I will have a stack of these containers ready and waiting so we can recycle as much as our waste as we can and save some money too.
Prepare To Feed Your Plants
While tidying your garden, gather all the soggy leaves into a wire bin so they can break down into amazing leaf mould.
Make a compost heap with all the plant left overs and kitchen scraps as well as prunings and dead material and paper and card from your house.
Homemade compost is there best thing to give to your plants. You can also make homemade feeds such as comfrey tea, nettle soup, and even sea weed feed. Here’s a simple compost experiment to try. A great one for kids too.
Start to plan now and you won’t need to buy expensive food for your plants to thrive.
So hopefully you have a good idea of the tasks you can start over the next few weeks. It’s a good time to take a breath and plan and prepare. To dream about harvesting tasty crops and take your mind off the stress going on around the world….
