Welcome to Gardening with Ben, the podcast where we dig into the soil of
our gardens and the depths of our green funds. I'm your host, Ben,
here to guide you through the joints of gardening, from sowing seeds to
reaping bountiful harvests. Each episode will explore tips, tricks, and tails from
the garden and allotment, sharing insights from ourself and stories from our own back
garden adventures. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just getting your hands dirty for
the first time, there's something here for everyone, So grab your brew and
gardening gloves and let's get growing. With Gardening with Ben. Welcome to Gardening
with Ben's January Tasks, the podcast where we'll guide you through the essential garden
and allotment jobs for January. As we step into the new year, our
gardens and allotments may seem dormant, but there's still plenty to do. This
month will focus on key tasks such as winter pruning, planning your year's crops,
preparing soil for early planting, and protecting your plants from the chill.
Whether it's maintaining your tools, starting some seeds indoors, or organizing your gardening
space. We've got you covered, so grab your gloves and join us as
we make the most of January, setting the stage for flourishing garden and bountiful
allotment in the year ahead. So this is the second half of yesterday's podcast.
If you're not listening to yesterday's podcast, it was all about what seeds
we should be planting in January, and I went through what vegetables seeds to
plant, what fruit seeds to plant while not fruit seeds, fruit plants or
trees, and what flower seeds to plant in January. So in today's podcast,
we're going to be talking about what jobs need to be done in the
garden. And usually I like to create a little tick list so that I
can tick them off and I know that I've completed them. And that's when
I know that I've done all these little jobs. Get them done out of
the way, and then we can concentrate on doing other bits and bobs around
the garden. But getting these monthly jobs done and out of the way is
a good way to get started each month down at the allotment. So yeah,
in today's podcast, hopefully it'll get you some little tasks to do.
You might think that your allotment's pretty quiet, pretty dormant, and there's nothing
to be done in the garden at this time of the year. Whereas it's
the perfect time to get stuff done in the allotment and garden because there's not
much to be done, but the stuff that you can do will improve it
for the year ahead, so it's a good time to get stuff all up
and running and sorted. So again in this episode, we're going to be
talking about what vegetables jobs need doing, what fruit jobs need doing, and
what flower jobs need doing. So hopefully you'll get some good tips and advice
from this. So make sure you do click that subscribe button and then you
can keep up to date with all our podcasts. And as I said,
these podcasts are going to be coming out on a regular basis again. Now,
last year we did pretty realbbish, I do admit, but I think
so far this year recorded more than they did last year. But we still
had a lot of streams last year, so people are still listening to them,
which is fantastic. So the podcasts are backup and money and hopefully we'll
have a lot more to add to the podcast shelves for you to listen to.
So, yeah, what have we in store for you? So make
sure you've got a notepad and you can listen to these little jobs what need
doing. There's not many jobs in January to be doing, but once you've
done these jobs, you can know that you've done well, that you've succeeded.
So we're going to start off with what jobs need doing in the vegetable
garden. So the sort of stuff what needs doing in the vegetable garden is
if you're thinking about growing some peas in the garden and you want them,
to get them growing pretty early so that you get an early crop, you
need to cover an area of ground to warm it up so that it gets
it nice and warm the soil before you sew them out. Unless you're sewing
them in pots before planting out, you don't necessarily need to warm the ground
up. But I wouldn't recommend sewing peas at this time of year. There's
obviously too many rodents around, there's birds around, and there's not much food
around, so as soon as you've sown them, you'll probably find that they've
all been eaten in the next couple of days by mice and rats and birds.
You're best off sewing in pots if you wanted to be soiled them,
so I pretty much sew them around March time if you are wanting to be
sewing peas parsnips. Now, parsnips are one of the longest growing vegetables that
take time to grow that and brustles sprouts and usually start sawing parsnips pretty early
in the year, and you don't pull them until there has been a frost.
And the reason why you leave them until they've been a frost or the
ground's being frozen is that it reacts with the vegetable and it makes it sweeter
and tastier, and leaving them in that ground for that frost period does make
them taste a lot nicer and gives them a really good taste. So don't
pick your parsnips until we've had a frost or snow and it's been frozen,
and it will react to the parsnips and make them taste a lot nice.
We haven't had many frosts so far this year, and we've not certainly had
not much snow. I don't know what about where you live or the areas
that you're from, certainly not had much frost here in Yorkshire potatoes. Again.
In the previous episode, I talked about growing potatoes and starting them chitting.
If you're growing these in the greenhouse or polytunnel at this time of year,
which you can be doing. You can be growing them if it's warm
enough in your polytunnel or greenhouse. You can use a heater or a fleece
to protect them a cold nights in January, as it does get cold in
January, and it'll certainly get colder in February before it starts to get warmer
in the summer. So you can be growing potatoes at this time of the
year in a heated greenhouse or polytunnel as long as they kept warm at night,
or it will kill the plants off and you certainly wouldn't want that.
What to do in the fruit garden in January, well, this month obviously
is a good month to be shaping your plants up and sorting them all out
ready for next year, well ready for this year's harvests. And it's now
start to be pruning them, be tidying them up, be shaping them up,
cutting off any branches that are going the wrong way or that it's not
letting enough air through it, so it's a case of just trimming them back
and making them look smarter. So apple trees, make sure your apple trees
are pruned this month, ready for them waking up soon and starting to going
into bud. Black currants these can be prune this month, ready for the
summer months. Gooseberries again, prune them, but be careful because of them
awful phones in them. I've got a red gooseberry bush of my alotment and
I can't wait for it. It's grown quite a lot this last year,
so hopefully we'll get some good crops on it this year. Pear trees as
well as apple trees, can be prune this month while they're still dormant.
Red currants again, these can be pruned this month. Do not prune your
plums will not prone cherries. Anything that's got a stone in it, don't
prune this month. You're meant to prune them in the summer months, as
it can affect the tree and we wouldn't want that. Rhubarb plants, if
you're wanting to grow early rubarb, why not try forcing it. And I
often sprinkle a bit of chicken pellet manure near the crowns to help feed them
for the year ahead. And I saw my rhubarb crowns today. I look
at them, and if you've not seen my Instagram post or my Facebook post,
you'll see that it's growing really well already. And it shouldn't be growing
as fast as it is at the moment. But it's coming back to life
pretty much fast, and I can't believe how well it's actually doing. It
will probably die off again when we get a cold spell or something like that,
because it will just kill it off. But it certainly shouldn't be growing
at this time of year. If it does carry on slaying, being warm
and we don't get no frost or snow, I'll be harvested some before we
know it. I'll be having a rubob crumble in January. What I'll be
picked. But yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to the ruboub crumbles again.
I don't cook myself. I give them to my mum, and my mum
makes me all the crumbles and I just freeze them all. But that's what
parents are for, don't tell them. So yeah, that's all the fruit
garden jobs this month. So what else is it? What jobs to do
in the flower garden. There's not an awful lot of jobs to be doing
in the flower garden, but there's still a few little tiny jobs which can
be done this month. If you're going any panss in your allotment or garden,
again, another good flower to grow, because who doesn't love the pans
is the flower all through the winter adding color to the garden. And if
you look after them, they'll keep on growing well. And the way we
look after them is that we keepheading them. Do not let them grow to
seed. As soon as the flower starts to die, dehead it and it
will encourage more and more flowers to grow on it, and you'll keep them
going. And that's what we want down at the allotments. Roses, if
you've not pruned these, they can still be done this month while the plants
are still dormant. So if you've got any rose bushes, or you've got
any trailing roses, what you're growing up arches and stuff like that, make
sure you tidy them up, get them all sorted, give them a little
prune, and yeah, get them shaped ready for the year ahead, and
hopefully you'll get some good roses on them this year. Give them a bit
of food ready for the year ahead again, chicken and youre or food what
you can purchase from the shops. Just give them that little bit of attention
and love because if you love them, they'll love you back and they'll produce
you some fantastic flowers for the allotment. So yeah, that is basically all
the jobs which need doing in the allotment over January. So there's not many
jobs to be done. You could mostly do a lot of those in the
day, to be honest, depending on how much stuff you've got in your
guard. So there's not a lot to be doing down there. But I
hope that you've enjoyed it. And like I say, we're going to be
getting these podcasts out a lot more so. We've had two new episodes in
the last couple of days. Hopefully you'll be getting a few more. Will
be at least doing three or four a week, so make sure you stay
tuned for them. I've got a list of podcasts what I want to do
for this month, so hopefully we will stay on track and you'll get all
these episodes. But please do click that subscribe button, do click that follow
button. If you've not left a review on the podcast. Please leave a
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you can leave a review and help push it out. The more reviews I
get, it will push it out to people listening. So please do leave
a review of my podcast. So until next time, it has been a
shorter episode than usual, But yeah, until next time, Remember keep smiling,
keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben. Everybody, and that wraps
up another episode of Gardening with Ben. Thank you for joining me in this
journey. Remember, every seed planted is a step towards a greener world,
and every day is a chance to grow something beautiful. Keep nurturing your gardens
and your souls. Until next time, I'm Gardening with Ben reminding you to
let your garden be your sanctray. Happy gardening, and see you in the
next episode. Remember, keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben.