Happy New Year to you all and my apologies for the late posting for what jobs to do now for January. The Christmas holiday period is always a busy affair at my home and I have struggled to find the time to post.
Now that we are back to normal and most of us are returning back to work, it’s definitely time to start planning ahead to the new growing season. Apart from the atrocious rain that we have incurred, we haven’t experienced any bad snowfall as yet, but as we are still in the midst of winter, I don’t suppose that we can expect to have a winter free from snow. When deciding what seeds to grow bear in mind that most seeds will still need some sort of heat and protection. So if you don’t have a heated propagator or heated greenhouse, some seeds can still be put on hold until next month. Better to wait a little than to be too eager and fail!
Jobs to do………in January
- Plan what you intend to grow this year and order seeds
- Continue digging over the plot.
- Spread a layer of well rotted manure over empty beds but leave in clumps ready for spreading when the weather conditions improve
- Warm up seed beds by covering with a layer of polythene, carpet or cardboard
- Buy and chit seed potatoes
- Make sure pots and seed trays are cleaned ready for sowing
- Start to save empty plastic veg and meat trays to use for sowing seeds
- Collect egg trays for chitting potatoes
- Check for slugs under brassica leaves and secure netting
- Continue to check over crops that you have stored from previous months
- Cover late crop vegetables that are not winter hardy such as salads and oriental leaves
- Continue to hoe all weeds where possible
- Mulch asparagus beds
- Lime your soil if needed
- Prune fruit trees such as pears and apples
- Prune blackcurrant bushes and take hard wood cuttings
- Don’t forget to feed the birds
What to sow………Indoors
- Winter salads
- Summer Cabbages
- Summer Cauliflowers
- Early variety peas
- Onion seeds for giant varieties (min temp 13c)
- Parsley (curly leafed)
- Chillies, peppers and aubergines in heat for an early start
- Leeks (min temp 13c)
- Calabrese
- Spinach
- Radish
What to sow………Outdoors
- Garlic
- Autumn onion sets and shallots
- Broad beans
What to plant………in January
- Winter salad crops – protected by some sort of cloche
- Plant rhubarb sets
- Fruit bushes are best planted now
- Jerusalem artichokes
- Bare root container-grown trees
Crops in season now
- Broccoli (Sprouting)
- Brussels sprouts (tops)
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Celeriac
- Celery
- Chicory
- Endive
- Jerusalem Artichokes
- Kale
- Kohl Rabi
- Leeks
- Lettuce
- Mustard Cress
- Parsnips
- Spinach
- Swede
- Swiss chard
- Turnips
- Winter Radish
Happy diggin’
Debb
digginwivdebb 
Happy new year Debbi and happy diggin xxx
Hi, this is a really useful post thank you, I’m feeling more organised already! It may be a silly question but here goes.. We have sprouts growing and they are very small buds on the stalk at the moment: would it be okay to snip the top leaves to eat now or will this impede the growth/development of the actual sprouts? Thanks.
Thanks for your question. Although I’m no expert by any means, I would think that cutting off the top of the sprout plants to eat now would be perfectly fine. The sprouts themselves may not have very much longer to grow anyway so what do you have to lose. However, I would still recommend covering them from the pigeons who especially love brassica plants.
Thanks for stopping by and making a comment. I have never personally grown pink fir apple before and I’m quite excited to give them a go this year. Let’s hope that blight doesn’t strike and ruin my exciting plans! I’ll keep you posted on how well, or not so well they do.
I will get eating I think, as you say, what’s to lose?! I will get covering too as we get a regular pair of doves and woodpidgeons visiting the garden. I have left a lot of the bamboo canes up so maybe they have deterred stamping so far. Thanks!
I make it a priority to make sure that as soon as I have planted my brassicas in their final growing place, after a very good watering, the netting is firmly and securely put in place. This netting is never moved unless I have to do a little weeding or the harvest has come to an end. This way I can guarantee that the crops are for me and not the birds. Although I do actively feed the birds at home. 🙂
Wish me luck: I am trying to reblog this in our – new – official allotment web-site at
http://www.challotments.wordpress.com
Thanks for finding my post worthy of a re blog. FYI it worked 🙂
No worries (glad it worked).
Hint, hint I am now looking for a what to do in February
😉
Thanks Deb
Post is scheduled for 5.30pm tonight 😉
Reblogged this on Cheslyn Hay Community Allotments.