by Janis on 26th January 2024 / 0 comments
A New Year, what will 2024 hold?
A Happy New Year to you all, and positive vibes for 2024.
Let’s all be upbeat for the year ahead; the shortest day is way behind us, and the evenings are gradually becoming lighter already.
It won’t be long, and we’ll have winter well and truly kicked into touch. Although I must admit I do love the seasonal changes, there’s something quite heart-warming about winter cooking. A delicious hearty casserole or an apple crumble and custard always goes down a treat.
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What we’ve been up to in January
In the garden and on the websiteAs our garden is pretty dormant at the moment, so it has been quite quiet on the gardening front.
The cottage garden in January
We’ve been keeping our garden waste been full of the shrubbery leftovers which we cut down last autumn and then the branches and cuttings from our two bushy Christmas trees.
This year our council backtracked and decided they would recycle the communities old Christmas trees, which is good of them as we pay for our garden waste service (moan over).
Have you seen any signs of your bulbs popping up in your garden, pots, and containers? Our mountain of bulbs which I bought from J. Parker’s and are gradually peeking through.
Blue and yellow iris on the patio
In our garden we can see green shoots popping up in the main beds although there is no sign of the snowdrops, I planted a few years ago. However, our patio pots are steadily coming to life and incredibly my delicate dwarf iris are flowering already, I can’t believe it.
The fruits of our labour are now emerging.
Achievements for January
Let’s keep ticking those boxesAs you would expect, January has been a reasonably quiet month in the garden and the damp and windy weather certainly hasn’t helped.
Now is a good time to prune evergreen shrubs, especially holly, box, and yew. We have a few holly bushes and yew, so it’s best we keep on top of them.
It’s also an ideal time to prune your apple and pear trees.
The arch to the secret garden
So, let’s see what we’ve managed to tick off for January.
Clear the remainder of the patio pots where required.
Keeping an eye on my softwood cuttings, which are over-wintering.
Ensure our garden waste bin is full.
Lessons learnt & mistakes made
You live and learnAgain, I have not made any garden mistakes, yay, maybe because I haven’t really been in the garden.
Although, I should have cleared out some of the dying plants in my pots. In my defence they were still quite green.
Our garden in January
Our plans for the coming month
What’s on your to-do list?Decided on the planting for our two front garden beds.
Continue to monitor our garden tasks on the RHS Planner; this online tool is so handy.
Check whether or holly, yew, apple and pear trees need pruning.
Prune our two standard roses; I’ve read that living in the southeast of the UK, it’s safe to prune them in February.
Start clearing weeds and unwanted planting in the Cottage Garden section.
Clean out our bird feeders.
Please let us know what you have planned in your garden this month; we’d love to know.
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