Gardener's Diary is a regular feature of Age-Net run by our Deputy Editor

Rosemary Martin

 

January 2010

January, the start of a new year; an optimistic month and a time to shake off the gloom of the dreary, dark months of early winter..

Enjoy a leisurely wander around your local garden centres, evaluating what's new or trendy without the hassle of the summer time visitors.

Enjoy walking round the heated greenhouses with their glorious scent of indoor flowering plants, simple pleasures!

It can be a mild month, which allows us to have a few hours pottering in the garden, getting some much valued fresh air and exercise, wrapped up well with plenty of layers of course. Gone are the days it seems, of closing our gardens up for the winter months, as recent milder winters in the UK allow all year round gardening.

So instead of paying for expensive sessions in the gym, get out in the garden for some invigorating, healthy and free exercise..

 

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Tips and jobs for the month.. (Depending on the weather of course!)

Bad weather tips and jobs

If we have snow, try to clear it off the trees and shrubs as soon as you can, to stop it bending or breaking the branches. Use a long-handled broom to knock it off.

Don`t walk on frosty lawns as the black footprints left behind will take ages to disappear.

In prolonged frosty weather keep a small area of your pond ice-free. This allows the escape of gases resulting from the decomposition of vegetation on the bottom of the pond, which if trapped may asphyxiate the fish.

After a sharp frost check that winter bedding such as wallflowers has not been lifted. If this happens await the thaw and firm the plants back. Prune off any frost blackened stems from shrubs.

Turn off the water supply to your outside tap and make sure there is no residue water in the pipes.

Cover any tender plants with paper or horticultural fleece if frost is expected.

Indoor jobs

Wash and disinfect any seed trays or pots that are going to be used during the coming season.

You can make early sowings of fine seeded bedding plants like petunia, lobelia and fibrous rooted begonias in a heated propagator, but they cannot be put in the garden until June in the UK. Do you really want to nurture them for five months? Leave seed sowing until April if you can..

Sow greenhouse tomatoes, peppers and aubergines in heat.

Bring potted bulbs such as hyacinths and narcissi indoors when the buds are just showing. Place them first in a cool room with as light a position as possible to ensure the foliage grows slowly and evenly with getting `leggy`

Exhibition onions should be sown under glass. Use a soil-based compost and keep in full light, but cool and frost-free.

Take some time right now to plan this year's vegetable plot so that you know what to order. We got a bit carried away last year and grew a lot of things that weren't practical, so they were wasted.

Choose this year`s flower seeds from your catalogues and place your orders now to be sure of your first choice of varieties.

Outdoor mild weather jobs

If the grass continues to grow, mow it with the mower blades set high. Grass should be cut no lower than 2.5cm and the cuttings should be removed.

On a mild day, empty the greenhouse, sweep it out well, wash it down, scrub down timbers and benches, and generally disinfect with Jeyes Fluid if it is still available (I have seen it in DIY shops, despite rumours of it being banned)

Get the vegetable patch or allotment off to an early start, by warming the soil; Place a row of cloches or a stretch of clear polythene in a sunny area, in preparation for new sowings in a few weeks time.

January is a great month for pruning most deciduous trees and shrubs. Do not prune spring flowering plants, like forsythia as you would be removing their

spring flowers. These shrubs can be pruned when they have finished flowering.

Plant roses or shrubs if the ground is not frozen.

If your mower need sharpening, servicing or any new parts, this is the time to do it.

There is absolutely no excuse for piling on those extra pounds with all this gardening waiting to be done! You will feel really invigorated after a couple of hours outside on a winter`s day..