Gardening jobs for January

• A selection of Seed potatoes is available now, with our full range of some 60 plus varieties arriving shortly depending on the weather. It’s best to check either by telephone or e-mail if it’s a specific variety you require. Chitting is the process that allows strong green shoots to develop on the seed potato; this gives them the advantage of an early start and also increases the yield. For more information see our seed potato page.
  
  
• Make sure that garden birds have food and water especially if the ground becomes frozen. We have a large selection of different bird food and feeders to suit all tastes!
  
  
• If you didn’t get round to sowing your sweet peas in the autumn you are not too late to complete this task. Autumn sown sweet peas have the advantage of developing a good root system that will sustain the plant in the hot dry summer months when they flower, it is also claimed that they produce longer flower stems and more flowers per stem. For most gardeners’ spring sowing works perfectly well, if you did sow in autumn the germinated plants will soon need their tips pinching out so that they do not get too leggy. We have a very good range of sweet pea seeds in varieties to suit all tastes whether it is colour or scent you are looking for.
  
  
• Keep off the grass if it becomes frozen or frosted, damage can be done by walking on frozen lawns which becomes apparent when it thaws. If weather permits improve the drainage of your lawn by pushing a garden fork 15cm into the ground and wiggling it around to open up the holes. You can then brush some horticultural sand into these using a stiff broom; this prevents the holes closing up and so improves the drainage. Don’t forget to check the lawn mower out and if needs be send it of to be serviced, believe it or not it will not be long before the lawn will need its first trim.
  
  
• If you are lucky enough to have a large established Wisteria now is the time to prune it. The new shoots need to be shortened back to two or three buds from the main stem. The advantage of completing this task now is twofold, without the leaves on the plant you can see exactly where to cut and secondly it encourages the formation of the flower buds.
  
  
• Now is the time to clean the greenhouse inside and out, before the start of spring seed sowing. The glass needs to be thoroughly cleaned so that full advantage of the light can be taken which is an important ingredient for healthy plant production. The benches, floors and corners need careful scrubbing with a garden disinfectant to eliminate any over wintering pests.
  
  
• For an early crop of delicious tender young stems of rhubarb, clear away all dead matter from the crown and cover with a large pot or bucket or a special rhubarb forcer that will exclude the light, an ideal but not essential addition would be a pile of horse manure covering the crown, this speeds up the process with the heat that it generates. The plant will produce tender pink stems in just a few weeks.