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January

“January brings the snow” goes the poem but hopefully it won’t this year. Long nights and short cold days mean that gardening is not a priority for most people, but January is the ideal time to plan how your garden is going to look this year.

Jobs around the Garden…

  • January is the time to prune fruit trees/bushes.
  • Get a head start with potatoes by “chitting” them now.
  • Cover areas in the vegetable patch with cloches to warm the soil for early sowings.
  • Sow early vegetables, and flower seeds which can be kept indoors.
  • Dead head flowering plants in your containers to prolong the show.
  • Now is the time to force rhubarb. Select a root and mulch with garden compost, cover with a bucket or a special rhubarb forcer.
  • Established trees can be fed with Growmore.

Flowers to sow…

You don’t need a greenhouse to start these seeds, a bright windowsill will suffice.

  • Antirrhinum
  • Begonia
  • Dianthus
  • Gazania
  • Geranium
  • Lobelia
  • Pansies
  • Sweet Pea

Vegetables to grow…

For an early start in the vegetable garden sow:

  • Broad Beans (Aquadulce Claudia)
  • Celeriac
  • Celery
  • Onions (Ailsa Craig)
  • Salad Leaves
  • Spinach

Wildlife Gardening in January…

  • Put out bird food on the ground, in feeders and on bird tables.
  • Keep the bird bath topped up and make sure it isn’t frozen.
  • If you have a wildlife pond stop it from freezing over by using a float.
  • Put out food for hedgehogs – not bread and milk – you can use hedgehog food from wildlife food suppliers or they can also have tinned dog or cat food and crushed dog biscuits or cat biscuits.
  • Make a shelter for wildlife from logs, rocks and piles of leaves.
 

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The Garden CentreTo Visit in Essex

We have parking spaces for up to 450 cars and easy access both onto and off of the A127, which is the main dual-carriage way into Southend-on-Sea. The A127 is off Junction 29 of the M25 which is a 10 minute drive to our door. Plan your visit to Summerhill today. We can’t wait to see you.

Summerhill Garden Centre, Pipps Hill Road North, A127 Arterial Road, Billericay, Essex CM11 2UJ