There are plenty of jobs that you can be getting on with in your garden this month.
Continue planting when the ground is not waterlogged or frozen. Prune out any dead branches.
Cut back Cornus grown for the winter stem colour when they start growing at the end of the month. The best colour is shown on the young stems.
Prune or trim any winter flowering shrubs such as Mahonia and Viburnum when they finish flowering.
Continue planting fruit trees and soft fruit when the weather permits.
Finish winter pruning apples, pears, quinces, medlars and mulberries. Do not prune cherries or plums until late June – mid August, when they are still growing. This is because they are particularly susceptible to bacterial canker and Silver Leaf (a fungal infection).
Prune Autumn raspberries down to ground level, weed and remove fallen leaves. Apply a general fertilizer.
Use Winter Tree Wash on fruit trees to remove dormant insects and their eggs.
Plant up containers with pots of Primulas, Hellebores and bulbs to cheer up the garden. They can be planted out in the garden when they finish flowering. Deadhead and tidy pansies and violas so they will keep flowering until the summer bedding is ready to plant.
Plant pots of snowdrops in the garden, they establish more quickly than dry bulbs.
Prune Rose bushes and climbing roses.
Prune late summer flowering clematis such as C.viticella,
Cut back side shoots of Wisteria to two buds for flowering.
Cut back the dead growth on Ornamental grasses such as Miscanthus before they start into growth again. Take them to within a few centimetres of the ground.
Trim winter flowering heathers when the flowers go over, to stop them becoming leggy.
Sow Sweet Pea seeds and place in a cold frame or greenhouse. They are quite hardy but the mice like eating them !
Keep weeding, it is easier to get on top of them at this time of year.
Remove any dead or diseased leaves on Brassicas to keep rots at bay.
Make a list of veg. seeds and when to sow them. Stock up on favourite seeds before they sell out.
Place cloches over the ground to warm the soil for early sowings.
Sow – broad beans and peas directly into the ground if the weather permits. If it is too wet or frosty, sow them into modules and place them in an unheated greenhouse or cold frame away from mice. Good varieties to sow now are Aquadulce Claudia, The Sutton, and De Monica.
Celeriac, leeks and brussel sprouts can be sown now in pots if some warmth can be provided for germination.
Sow salad leaves in pots in the greenhouse for cut and come again crops.
Do not be tempted to sow other crops until the ground warms up. The seeds will only rot. Crops soon catch up when the weather improves.
Place seed potatoes in old egg boxes in a light, frost free place to ‘chit’, grow little shoots, this will speed up cropping time when they are planted out.
Harvest brussel sprouts, leeks, swiss chard and parsnips.
As long as the ground is not frozen apply bone meal, and mulch fruit trees and bushes, shrubs, and herbaceous borders with compost or manure.
Do not walk on the grass when it is frozen.
