From bare-root planting to winter pruning, January is about thoughtful groundwork for a healthier, happier garden year ahead
While there are generally fewer garden jobs to do in January, it’s a good time to plan for the year ahead. Have a look at your garden and see what worked well … and decide if any areas need re-thinking!
Do you need to create a more wildlife friendly garden? Letting nature take over may reduce some of the work involved in tidying up: leaving piles of leaves in corners and on the flower beds will do no harm, and the worms will do some of the work for you!
Winter is a good time to check on the weeds in the borders – remove them before their spring growth.
Prune your wisteria this month by cutting back the newest thin summer growth, leaving only two or three buds.
Prune your rose bushes while they are still dormant – especially if they are tall and vulnerable, they are liable to wind rock. Cut the branches back to just above a bud, making sure to remove any crossing or dead branches.
Some of the other jobs that can be done this month are sowing this year’s sweet peas, begonias, pelargoniums, basil … a heated propagator will help with the seed sowing and germination temperature requirements.
Planting
If the soil is not too wet or frozen, now’s the time to plant bare root roses, shrubs, hedging and ornamental trees. Bare rooted plants are much less expensive than container-grown plants and can establish very well. Many deciduous and evergreen shrubs, trees and hedging plants can be planted bare rooted as they are dormant between November and March.
Plants and shrubs which flower in January include hellebores (try niger), hamamelis (witch hazel), lonicera (honeysuckle) and, of course, snowdrops! Mahonia are easy to grow and some are scented.
Clematis cirrhosa ‘freckles’ requires very little pruning, just trim it slightly after flowering.
Also viburnum (tinus is evergreen and easy to grow, bodnantense is a very nice scented plant, and another that’s easy to grow), and cornus – not actually in flower, but great for winter colour. For some instant garden cheer, these can all be bought now in garden centres.
