The new year gets gardeners all enthused but it is also a time to show patience. The gnomes wont rush to help you anytime soon Hi-ho.

Helpful Tips

• Beware experts – book learning may not translate into a better garden.Most experts make me worry.
• Worry less about experience. Applied experience as a result of your own gardening is better than the secondhand variety.
• Maslov’s hierarchy of needs applies to garden plants as much as gardeners. The basic needs of food, water then shelter in an appropriate home need to be taken care of first. No need to rush into being an exotic all knowing gardener.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jobs left from Last Year

• Clean pots, ornaments and seed trays, insulate outdoor taps and do those maintenance jobs you have avoided.
• Build compost heaps, raised beds and hard landscaping when weather permits.
• In dry weather treat wooden furniture and structures.

Plant Matters

• Prune soft fruit bushes and apple/pear trees.
• Force rhubarb by covering with a bucket filled loosely with straw.
• Sow alpine seeds and plant winter flowering clematis cirrosa or napaulensis.
• Check over wintering tubers, cold greenhouse plants and pinch out the tops of sweet peas to get bushy well rooted plants.
• Prune grape vines before the sap rises to avoid bleeding.

Crops

• Keep taking the green and look after the sprouts.
• Bring hyacinth bulbs indoors for scent and flowering.
• Gather leeks and root veg roughly clearing the ground.