Page 33 - Oundle Life January 2025

NEW YEAR
GARDENING
Get out into the fresh air...
January is often considered a quiet time in the garden and gardeners often spend little time out in the fresh air, preferring the indoors. This is fine if you have a greenhouse or conservatory full of plants but there are still tasks that can be done in the garden which will pay off later in the year. Getting out in the garden is good for both physical and mental health, keeping you both fit and
dug in as green manure.
This brings me to digging. If possible, aim to
complete your digging during January so that there is a couple of months of frosts and rain to break the surface soil down to produce a tilth for sowing or planting your vegetable crops. If you are a no-digger then you should complete the mulching of your soil this month, it would
relaxed so a spell of winter gardening is just what the doctor would order!
Having hopefully persuaded you to
go out into the garden, what can you
do? Firstly, remove any weeds, a spell
of weeding now will give you a very
good start for the year and prevent any
over wintering weeds seeding in late
February or early March. Removing
small weeds now is a lot easier than removing bigger weeds later in the year. If they are not seeding, the weeds can be added to the compost heap or if on the vegetable patch, they can be
Getting out in the garden is good for both your physical and mental health
be wise to hose off any weeds before mulching to prevent them growing through the mulch and giving problems later in the year when you start sowing.
Whilst on the topic of vegetables, complete the ordering of any seeds required for the year and when delivered sort them into the order to be sown
so they are ready. Also order or buy
your seed potatoes and when delivered unpack them and stand the seed potatoes in seed trays or egg boxes in a cool light room, the spare bedroom tends to be ideal. This is so the potatoes chit, that is produce small shoots about 2 to 3cm
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