Time to get Gardening.
Thu 30th January 2025
Gardening is all about looking back and learning from the mistakes you made the previous year, the crops and flowers that grew well in your garden and those that didn’t.
From a design perspective thinking about changing the layout of your garden in January / February can also be a time for reflection, questions such as, did this path work? Can I replace or reshape the flower beds?
An area that was created in my garden in lockdown was the connective potager, the cordon apples and the herb beds are already linked to the small kitchen garden, and so to increase the ability to be able to plant more vegetables I decided to extend the area into the current flower bed by placing a small risen bed where I could then grow a combination of cut flowers and vegetables.
The size of the border is 2 metres wide and 5 metres in length, not a large area but it still has the capacity to produce food and flowers.
The idea worked, but in 2024 the growth of the plants overall was so erratic that access to the area became difficult and so I have decided that not only will I increase the size of the risen bed but also dig out and replant the whole area with the aim of multiplying the yields but at the same time allowing me access throughout the year.
Plants that can be reutilised elsewhere will be potted up and when space allows be replanted, the brick path will also be repositioned around the new beds.
Jobs to do in the garden: If you haven’t already done so prune your climbing roses, leave the rambling roses until after flowering.
There will now be a good supply of Swiss Chard, Kale and Spinach to be harvested from the garden. These can be added to numerous recipes for example kale in minestrone soup, layers of spinach in lasagne and fruit smoothies.
Cut and come again salads in the greenhouse are doing well there four large trays which were sown in the Autumn of 2024, have been harvested regularly.
When it comes to harvesting leaves off a lettuce always take the outer leaves first as this will encourage new leaves to form which in turn will give you more growth and ultimately more food! One of the most optimistic tasks in the early months of the year is looking through seed catalogues.
Ordering what you have perhaps sown in previous years but also maybe trying something new. Order your potatoes and start to sprout them by the end of January.
I find cardboard egg boxes useful for this task.
Content - Julie Dowding
