Speaker 1: Welcome to Gardening with Ben, your go to podcast for
all things green and growing in twenty twenty five. Whether
you're a seasoned gardener, a budding enthusiast, or just curious
about cultivating your own slice of nature, you're in the
right place. Join me Ben as we explore practical tips,
inspiring stories, and the latest trends in gardening to make
your outdoor space bloom with life. From a lotment adventures
to wildlife friendly gardening. I'm here to help you grow
your passion and read the rewards. So grab your gloves,
roll up your sleeves, and let's get started on this
year's gardening journey. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Gardening
with Ben. After a short little break from these podcasts,
but we are back now back with new episodes for
you to listen to. And wow, has it been chelly
this week? Have you had the snow where you are? Well,
it's early last week and it's stuck around where I am.
It's still here, the temperatures not visien above zero this week.
It's been absolutely baltic. We just need it to warm
up and to get rid of all this snow and ice.
What's left around where we are. If you've not listened
to my previous podcast, go and listen to that one,
because that one's talking about all the things that we
can sew in January, obviously depending on the weather. But
today's episode we're going to be talking all about what
you can do in the garden in January, obviously depending
on the weather as well. But these are the sort
of tasks that you can get completed, tick them off,
and then you can move on to doing all your
other little jobs around the garden and everything like that.
And I just want to say a big welcome to
all the new listeners out there as we are pushing
this podcast out a lot more at the moment, so
hopefully we're getting a lot more people listening. And if
you're not following this podcast, click the follow button and
the bell and you'll get notified when new podcasts come up.
So yeah, today we're going to be talking about all
the jobs which you can do in the garden in January,
depending on the weather. Like we've got a lot of
our jobs completed or read ache before this Baltic weather came.
But some of these jobs we will be doing ourselves
and ticking them off as we go along. And in
these podcasts we talk about my gardening journey, what I'm doing,
what I'm getting up to, what I'm sewing, and what
we are getting completed down on the allotment every time
we go. So first off, we're going to talk about
what we can do in the vegetable garden this month.
Obviously we've not got many vegetables growing at this time
of year, but we've got a few things. What can
be grown. First off is peas. If you grow in
some early peas, cover the round to warm it up
before sewing, unless you are sewing them in pots beforehand.
And I've grown my peas in the ground many and
many years and I've had good crops. But now we've
got loads of squirrels living where we are down on
our allotment. Not that I don't like them. I love
seeing the squirrels down there, but obviously they're a pest
and they'll dig up all their food and eat them more.
And obviously because he's not much food around at the moment,
they'll pinch a lot of them, like the rats and
the mice well. So sometimes it's better to grow stuff
in pots, get them strong enough, and then plant them
out when they're big enough, and then they won't get
disturbed as much. Parsnips. If you've grown parsnips last year,
now is the perfect time to be digging them up.
This cold weather, the frozen ground, the snow on the
ground gives them a better taste, So always wait until
we've had a frost before digging up your parsnips potatoes.
If you're growing these in the greenhouse or polytonl which
you can do through the winter periods. You can't go
them outside because it's too cold, but you can grow
in the greenhouse and polytynel. Make sure they're kept warm
with a heater or use a fleece to protect them
from the cold nights in January. Now it needs a
lot of power to keep it warm. At the moment
it's absolutely Baltic out there. But yeah, we grow as
as we're ready for harvesting at Christmas time. We've not
got any potatoes growing at this time of year. What
jobs can you do in your fruit garden this month? Now?
This is perfect time to be doing all your pruning
of your fruit trees. While the plants are dormant, while
they're not growing the buds, and while they are hibernating
for the winter. So like your apple trees, your black currants,
your gooseberries, your pear trees, your red currants, make sure
you prune them all shape them all up, make sure
there's plenty of room for the air to get around
and get ready. But don't prune plug anything that's got
a stone inside. So for example, your plums, your cherries,
your aprilcots, your peachers. Don't prune them at this time
of year. You're meant to prune them around middle of springtime,
end of springtime, as they can get silver leaf if
you prune them at this time of year. They don't
cope well with being pruned in the winter time. Rubib plants,
if you're wanting to grow early rhubob, why not try
forcing it to get early crops. I also like to
sprinkle chicken palett of manure around the crowns to help
feed it for the year ahead, but obviously don't put
it on the crowns because it can burn them as well.
My rubob up to the other week was growing really well.
It was growing already and it shouldn't be growing yet.
It shouldn't be waking up until the March time. But
it were growing, but it'll all be dead again out
with all this cold weather. It will have gone back
to sleep and it'll start growing again in March time.
So general fruit garden jobs, check the steaks, support whires
you use in your garden. Replace any that you need to.
If any fruit tree or bush has had to, cut
it all down below soil level or get it out
if possible, carry it on planting fruit trees and bushes
this month as long as the ground is workable to
do it. What jobs need doing in the flower garden
at this time of year, well, again there's not many
flowers growing at this time of year. But the sort
of jobs that you can do are pansas. Any flowers
that have died. These can be deheaded to encourage new growth. Roses.
If you've not pruned your roses yet, this can still
be done this month while the rose bush is dormant.
So that is all the jobs which need doing in January.
There's not many jobs. Obviously through the months will get
more and more jobs that need doing every single month
down at the allotment, and we talk about this every
single month. We talk about what to do with that
month coming up. So one of the main things that
I like to do during the winter period is to
make sure I feed the birds as like this sort
of whether the ground is rock hard, they can't get
the worms out. There's not many berries around, everything's hidden
by snow or frost. There's not much around, so make
sure you do keep feeding your birds on a regular basis. Now,
I've got some bird feeders and the squirrels eat loads
out of them unfortunately, so I'm going to be investing
in some new squirrel proof bird feeders over the coming months,
so watch out for me sharing posts on that. But
obviously they're quite a bit more expensive because they've made
out of metal and they've got metal frame around them
to stop the squirrels from being able to get to them,
so hopefully, obviously it's quite a bit of money expensed
to buy, but it's a good investment because the seed
won't be going down as fast so in the long
run and hopefully fingers crossed the last forever, well the
last a long time. So we're going to be doing that.
And it's a Big bird watch coming up pretty soon
as well, so if you've not checked that out, check
it out online the Big Bird Watch and help see
how many birds are coming to your gardens and your
allotments and add them up and send them in. And
it's to help calculate what birds we've got and how
many speciess we've got out there. So it's all good
fun and good fun to do with the family as well.
So if you've not got a bird feeder in your garden,
you don't have to go out and buy the loads
of bird feeders or stuff like that. Buy one, get
some seed up and feed them birds and encourage your bluete.
It's your robins, your blackbirds. Encourage them to your garden.
But obviously they can attract rats and mice and stuff
like that, so don't put them anywhere where you don't
want to attract vermin to your plot. Mad Head puts
a little like finger underneath it where it catches any
seed that drops, so then it stops ats and mice
from being attracted to him, So have a look around
for one of those as well. So yeah, that is
it for today's episode. A bit of a short and
sweet one, but that is all the jobs which need
doing in January this month. Tomorrow we're going to be
giving you an update on how things are growing at home. Obviously,
I'm growing things at home at the moment, I'm trying
to give it a head start. I'm not growing loads
of things. I'm growing a few things. So make sure
he's tuning tomorrow's episode find out what I'm growing at home,
and get a little sneak preview. But yeah, I hope
you've enjoyed today's podcast. Again, if you're new to this podcast,
make sure you click the follow button. Make sure you
click the bell and you'll get notified when the podcast
come up. This one's later than usual in the day,
but they usually come up around seven o'clock in the morning,
so you've got plenty of time to listen to them
on the way to work or when you're having your
morning brew or walking your dog or down at the garden.
So we'll hopefully see you all tomorrow in tomorrow's podcast. Everyone,
remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep gardening with Ben. Everyone,
thanks for tuning in to today's episode of Gardening with Ben.
I hope you've enjoyed our chat and picked up some
tips to help your garden and allotment pride. Don't forget
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next time, everyone remember keep smiling, keep shining, and keep
gardening with Ben.