January garden advice and maintenance

General gardening

• Repair or replace patchy lawn and re-shape edges
• Check any stored tubers of Dahlia, Begonia and Canna for rot or drying out
• Currants and gooseberries can be pruned now
• Start forcing rhubarb
• Plan vegetable crop rotations for the coming season. Select the varieties you intend to grow during the year and buy the seeds
• Tidy beds and borders, mulch with well rotted manure, compost or bark and apply a slow release fertiliser e.g. bone meal
• To prevent branches snapping remove snow from evergreen trees and shrubs
• Avoid walking on your lawn when it is frosty, as this will cause damage

In the greenhouse

• Ventilate the greenhouse on warm days
• Do not over water your plants, water only when the compost is dry

Wildlife gardening

• Put out bird food on the ground, bird tables and in hanging bird feeders
• Keep the bird bath topped up and make sure it is not frozen
• Make sure a wildlife pond does not freeze over by placing a float on the surface
• Plant berrying deciduous trees - a mixture of native and non-natives works well
• Put out food for hedgehogs - not bread and milk! Dog food is best but not chicken varieties.
• Make a log and/or rock pile to create areas of shelter for wildlife
• Prepare for Spring by Sowing or planting wild flowers