January Gardening Guide

It’s time!

This is not a drill.

It’s officially Sarcococca-Confusa-scent-wafting-around-your-garden-brightening-up-your-day time! And the joy is real.

You will be accustomed, by now, to ‘Christmas Box’ being mentioned in anything wintery that I write and will understand my excitement that it’s finally flowering. It’s never flowered at Christmas for me, which always makes me wonder why it gained it’s common name as ‘Christmas Box’, but figure it must flower at Christmas somewhere? Maybe it’s just that ‘January Box’ didn’t sound at snappy.

Dried hydrangeas

 I always find myself browsing seed websites in January. However many times I remind myself I have plenty of seeds in stock that I should be using, I just can’t help myself. One of my favourite websites has to be ‘Real Seeds’, who are a UK based company specialising in heirloom and heritage vegetable seeds.

When looking for seeds, you’ll notice some seed packets refer to the variety as being an ‘F1’ or ‘F1 hybrid’ which means that they’ve bred two genetically different plants to create that new variety. If you grow these seeds, let the plants go to seed and then grow those seeds on, you won’t be growing the same plant again as the subsequent seeds will revert back to a variation of the original two varieties. In essence, those seeds you’re buying are a ‘one and done’ packet.

On the flipside, if you’re buying an heirloom or heritage seed, it’s likely to be a variety that you can grow, harvest the seed from and continue to grow for years to come. Whether it’s vegetables or flowers that you’re growing, each year that you grow and harvest the seed of a particular plant, the seed children are gradually becoming more acclimatised to your particular growing conditions so will grow better and better each season. In last year’s ‘Great Scartho Seed Swap’ event, there was a lady who brought runner bean seeds that her father had been growing in the village for 50 years, so you can guess how fantastic those plants are!

At Real Seeds (realseeds.co.uk) their varieties all have their own particular story, whether it’s the plants origins going back hundreds of years or the specific person who has grown the seeds. It makes them feel even more special (because you know I’m a sucker for a story) to know the care and attention that someone has taken to continue growing these plants to share the seeds with others.

I use a lot of the plants I grow from them as ‘edimentals’, as some of the heritage varieties are incredibly beautiful plants and vegetables. In particular, the pumpkins and squashes are often the most spectacular colours and patterns. I recently wrote a piece all about this that you’ll find here – Your Guide To Edimental Gardening.

Frosty sedum and Wini

If you’re after a wider variety of flower seeds, I often use Fothergills Seeds and Chiltern Seeds, depending what I'm looking for. They’re both pretty efficient when it comes to seeds and I’ve had success with most of theirs so they’re both good ones to check out ready for seed planting time!

On the subject of seed planting time, that time is not yet. There are a few things you can get away with planting now, such as sweet peas but for the most part, the light levels are just too low in January so you’ll end up with very ‘leggy’ seedlings. When seedlings aren’t getting enough light each day, they’ll start growing as quickly as possible to find more light which usually means they won’t be particularly strong plants in the end.

In the meantime, if your fingers are getting itchy and you want a little project to keep you away from sowing those seeds, you could get involved in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2025. The Big Garden Birdwatch is the world’s largest garden wildlife survey and helps to build a picture of how garden birds are faring. From doing these surveys, the RSPB has been able to identify that we’ve lost 38 million birds from UK skies in the last 60 years. Having this information means they can be proactive in the moment whilst these changes are occurring, hopefully making changes for the betterment of our UK wildlife.

I adore the birds in my garden although I’m not very good at identifying them, I have to admit. I know if they’re a blackbird, a robin or a wood pigeon but after that most of them are ‘small pretty bird’ to me! I’ll have to have a google search open while I’m doing the birdwatch this weekend, 24-26th January.

If birds aren’t your thing, here are a few other gardening jobs you can be getting on with this weekend…

Snowdrops in the green

If you’re seeing snowdrops appear elsewhere and dreaming about having some in your own garden, hold off a little. The best way to get snowdrops to thrive in your garden is to plant them ‘in the green’ which means to plant them once they’ve flowered. They don’t like being dried out, to buying them in packets as dried bulbs in the autumn isn’t a great idea nor is buying them in pots in the garden centres now, before they’ve flowered as they will be crazy expensive. Ordering a chunk of them in the green will mean you can plant them in swathes ready for them to look divine next year.

Move small shrubs

Now is a good time to move small shrubs and roses, as long as the ground isn’t frozen or too wet. Dig them up with plenty of roots and pop them into a prepared hole, ensuring to firm it in with your heel. Water the plant well once in place, even if the ground is damp, as this will ensure the soil fills any gaps around the roots.

Prune and prepare wisteria

Pruning wisteria now will help prepare the plant for flowering later in the year. Trim any stems that have grown beyond the supports as well as any extra stems that are twining through the main framework.

Amaryllis care

If you were gifted an amaryllis for Christmas, you can take a few steps to help it flower again this year to come. Move it into a slightly larger pot, if necessary, and ensure the compost dries out in between watering. Put the pot outside for the summer, ensuring there are drainage holes so that it doesn’t drown. In August, stop watering and bring it indoors and commence watering again in October.

Check on dahlias

If you’re overwintering your dahlias, give them a check over every now and then and be sure to throw away any mouldy ones to ensure that they don’t affect the healthy ones.

Order and plant fruit trees

I’m in the market for a new fruit tree for my allotment this year and am currently stuck in ‘analysis paralysis’ (which isn’t unusual for me by any means). I’m torn between a cherry, a fig, a medlar or an almond tree and simply cannot decide. Anyway, if you’ve managed to make a decision, now is a good time to get it planted.

If none of the above tasks need to be carried out in your garden space, you have full permission from me to put your feet up and get cosy a loved one, your cat or a baileys hot chocolate.