My top 10 jobs for January in no particular order. These are just some of the tasks I tend to do to get ready for the rest of the year.
1. Clean greenhouse / polytunnel I tend to use hot water and Jeyes fluid follow the ratio on the back of the bottle, along with a nylon brush I clean everything including all potting and storing work stations.
2. Clean all pots and seed trays again you can with a Jeyes and water mix here but I prefer to use hot water with a bit of washing up liquid and a nylon brush. You don’t have to do this but if your starting seedlings in used trays I find it helps to keep diseases at bay.
3. Plan what I’m going to grow this year and order all my vegetable seeds my rule here is to grow what works for me and what I eat and then allocate an area or a bed to trying something new or different. If you have never grown French beans before now is the time to try or maybe you want to try some onions or garlic. Although it’s months away now is the time to work out if you’re going to do a winter crop or not and make a note to sow seeds later in the year.
4. Cut back any green manure or add some well-rotted manure to any areas I think that needs it.
5. Prune fruit trees, move or add new raspberry canes and while you’re in the fruit section cut back any missed strawberry runners and pot these up ready to plant or give away to friends and family in March.
6. Depending where you are the ground may or may not be hard with frost or covered with snow, I always take this time to double dig my parsnip bed. This involves digging a trench the depth of a spade and place all the soil on a tarp OR to one side. Then I break all all the soil in the trench using a fork, just push the fork in and wiggle it back and forth OR you could turn it over and remove any stones.
Once the forking is complete I sieve the soil back into the trench and take care NOT to walk on it I have a nice stone free and non-compacted bed ready to sow Parsnips next month, it’s a fair bit of work but you get some good straight crop!
7. Place fleece down and make sure it’s pinned down in place although early I tend to forget to do it later on in the month it helps start to warm the soil up for an early Parsnip sowing.
8. If fires are allowed burn off any weeds or dead waste that you can’t compost, start your fire in the location you plan to plant this year’s potato crop, once the fire has finished rake the ash into the ground.
9. Check greenhouse / polytunnel for any wind damage to the cover or glass, look to replace or repair with tape – it’s best to tackle these problems BEFORE they start to become a serious problem.
10. This time of year we tend to get a fair bit of rain if your site is prone to flooding it’s worth making a note of that now decide to do one of the following:
- Raise the bed higher to avoid flooding
- Improve or add drainage. This could be done by digging out the path around the bed and back filling with rocks to help water flow.
- Consider turning that area in a bog / pod to help wildlife develop and plant some water loving / bog loving plants.
That’s it, that’s my top 10 jobs to do in the vegetable garden or allotment this month.