January

Top Tip:
After the dry summer and autumn we have seen some significant rainfall in December and at the start of January. So the soil in many gardens will be very heavy at the time of writing. However with the likelyhood of frost in January it's a great opportunity to do some digging if conditions permit. Frost is great for earth, particularly for breaking up heavy soil.

Advice:
January is the time for more planning, preparation and the propagation. If you have a heated greenhouse or are going to use indoor or shed propagators you'll be able to plant seeds from January onwards.

When planning your garden try to rotate your vegetable crops and avoid growing similar genus of plants for more than two years in the same place. This helps to cut down on disease and pests that are specific to one type of plant. I'm not obsessive about this and have had a potato patch in the same place for years. Look at the wider conditions in the garden and adapt best practice with your particular garden. Shade, walls, trees and so on can all have an impact on crops grown near them. A general guide to planting seeds is that the quicker a plant develops from seed the stronger it will be so avoid, where possible seeding when the ground temperature is too low.