The gardening week (January - Week 1, 2025)

Excited to be back

Jan 04, 2025

Not just gardening!

Well Christmas and New Year are over and it’s been a very busy time for Debbie and I. We’ve had all of the kids and their families here for most of the 6 days of our holiday period. It’s a rare treat, but also a tiring one, especially for Debbie who has spent way too much time in the kitchen.

It’s also a great opportunity though, to show off some of the benefits of growing a rich and varied diet, which - as I like to say - money can’t buy. I am planning a video soon, on our holiday meals.

An empty table, soon to be filled with home made delights

It’s also meant that I’ve stayed closer to home than usual. We’ve had many family beach walks, I’ve done quite a bit of cycling, usually early in the morning, in the dark, but I did enjoy the odd sunset ride.

I did manage, one very nice canal walk. But I’m really looking forward to some active sunny days again.

I’ve also been working ‘hard’ on bringing all of my gardening data up to date. My reference information pages, now have complete data for 2024 and many years previously and if you are in the mood for some planning, or to just remind yourself of the joys of spring or summer, they provide a good record. Open up a month - May is a nice one - to find out what I sowed, planted and harvested. Take a look at the tours for that month, or even the whole back catalogue of videos published in that month for every year I’ve been gardening.

What a difference a year makes!

This time last year all I could think about was the prospect of a little sunshine, after months of endless rain. The allotment site was badly flooded and even my plot - which I’ve raised up about 12” - was sodden. This year we’ve not had the rain, apart from the inevitable few stormy days, but it’s been warm, damp and gloomy. So I’m still looking forward to sunshine, but the plot is in much better condition.

I’m also avoiding, like the plague, YouTube videos imploring me to sow seeds, especially anything with a title like “10 seeds you MUST sow in January”, there’s no seed that MUST be sown in January and unless you have a really good reason to sow now, wait until February, results are usually better. I am of course sowing in January, but I hope that I have reasons that make sense!

I’ve also ordered my Nemasys slug nematodes and Fruit & Veg protection nematodes. It’s too cold to use them now, but in March (for slugs) and April (for Fruit & Veg Protection) I will be ready for battle. Nematodes are expensive, but for me it’s worth investing a week’s harvest value in spring, to improve my chances for the rest of the year. It’s also worth emphasising that nematodes only reduce your risks, they don’t - for me at least - eliminate the risk of failures! Last year for example I did get a mild attack of onion fly.

Although I’m inevitably sowing a few things, January isn’t a great month to be gardening, plants are at their weakest and are constantly struggling to cope with very low light levels, cold and damp. Unprotected plants - especially purple sprouting broccoli - is being battered by high winds and looking very sad.

It’s easy to get discouraged, so it’s important to remember that by mid-February plants under-cover start to show real signs of life, their leaves thicken and crisp up and by March, it’s a whole new world. I particularly like to look at old harvest photos, which always bring a smile to my face. Here’s a couple of examples from early spring.

The new season and the spring rush

As a year round gardener there’s never a new season for my allotment, I’m always sowing, my beds are always planted and I’m always harvesting. Winter harvests don’t compare with the other three seasons, but they are sufficient to keep us in fresh food and I always remind myself that the value of those 12 winter harvests is enough to cover ALL of my gardening costs.

I do try and find something to do on the allotment each week too, even in winter, because that helps me level out the effort over the year. I don’t have time in spring to be doing too much gardening as this is also peak time for holidays and my other hobbies. So I depend on winter to get everything I can ready for spring and then in spring, I try for a nice steady transition over to the summer crops, trying to avoid gluts and have a stable harvest volume for every week of the year.

I notice one other big advantage, I’m rarely in a rush to sow or plant early. For example, because I have a few early beans, peas and fruits (courgettes, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, peppers etc) in the greenhouse or polytunnel, protected from frost, I have enough for eating fresh. That means I can take my time sowing and planting my main crop plants, this means they grow stronger and are healthier and often give me a bigger overall harvest than if I’d been in a hurry. Delaying my main-crops also means I have several weeks of extra time to bring those spring crops (turnips, cauliflowers, calabrese, spinach, cabbages etc) to maturity. Here’s a late spring (11th May 2024) harvest, that makes the point nicely.

This pattern of gardening suits me well, it keeps me fed, active and enthusiastic all year round.

Allotment safety

Last year I mentioned how important it is to me, to keep my plot safe. This year, having had my cycling accident in April 2024, the risk of accidents is even more salient. I did do a better job last year of keeping my plot free of trip hazards etc and in January I will be doing a sweep of the plot to make sure it’s safe before I get too busy to think about it.

Greenhouse progress

The big change for me last year was having a greenhouse and I’m going to continue to try and push the envelope this year. I had mostly successes too, which is encouraging, but the peppers were a disappointment. I learned a few important lessons:

Most important is that peppers don’t set fruit reliably until it’s 15c at night. It’s not practical to keep a greenhouse that warm, so if I want early peppers I need to allow them to set fruit in the conservatory, BEFORE they go into the greenhouse
I grew way too many early peppers. A greenhouse/polytunnel is not a great place for peppers, they grow much better in my low tunnels. So I only need to grow a few plants for early fresh peppers for salads, as we have plenty in the freezer from last year for cooking
Staying on peppers for a minute, I also need to move the peppers outside by at least August, maybe even July, that will free up space in the greenhouse for more late crop experiments and the peppers will thank me for it!
I need to grow more crops for the little kids to snack on, more Sun gold tomatoes for example, more cucumbers, more strawberries

In general though I will be sticking to last year’s strategy:

Heat, I need to keep my greenhouse just above zero until April, after which I will keep it above 11c on most nights, on very cold nights maybe 6c. This worked fine last year for tomatoes, beans, courgettes, strawberries and cucumbers.
Light, my general approach with seedlings is to give them about the day length that they will enjoy at planting time, in March/April/May, so I will vary the grow light timing depending on the succession. I will stick to topping and tailing the day, usually switching them on at about 6am and then off at 8-9am and then on again when the sun sets and off at between 5pm and 7pm.
Height, I will try and make best use of the corners of the greenhouse to grow plants that need height, so peas, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers etc. That means constantly moving plants outside, for example the peas can go outside in April, the apricot and nectarines can go outside once fruit has set in late March/April. As usual I will use grow lights in the house to get plants started early.
Space, space is going to be at a premium, but by using the roof for hanging baskets, the full length shelves for seedlings, the trestle table for small plants and the low bench and floor for plants growing to maturity I think I can cope.

Sowings for January

There’s a lot going on in January! Here’s the summary gallery:

As always, here’s the link to the detailed database.

Sowings for the week

Nothing this week.

Not germinated yet

Just the peppers

Germinated this week

Nothing

Pricked out

Nothing this week

Potted on this week

Nothing this week

Planted this week

Nothing this week

Waiting to be planted out

Nothing right now, which is as it should be. I have a lot that will be ready within a few weeks, so I need to start looking for space!

Sowing’s for next week

I’m hoping that the peppers germinate, in which case I won’t need to re-sow them.

Growing guides for January

This link takes you to all of my monthly guides, where you can find a lot more than just my growing guides. I particularly like the list of videos produced in the relevant month in years gone by. Click here for January’s guides.

Wait for February?

It’s often better to defer sowings in January and wait until February, in case you’re wondering what I did, here’s my sowing guide for February last year!