The holiday season, ideally, sets us up with renewed energy, and hope, for a good and meaningful year ahead.
Though it doesn’t always happen, I aim for a series of “rest days” — a stepping away from usual daily routines, binging on favourite television series and leftovers.
Such periods of planned lassitude serve as a personal “re-boot” to refresh mind and body and fuel a renewed vision for the weeks and months ahead.
A refreshed vision is of great value to home gardeners as we begin planning for what to grow and were to grow it in the new year’s garden.
By now, print catalogues whose delivery was stalled during the postal strike should have begun arriving. Seed and plant lists, accompanied by alluring photographs, are a gardener’s field of dreams.
They can also be a tender trap. What gardener has never acquired more seeds and plants than they can ever manage to plant and care for well?
I still prefer print catalogues. Leafing through their pages and marking potential acquisitions is more leisurely and enjoyable than sitting in front of a screen to scan a company’s listings.
Fortunately, local seed racks usually meet most home gardeners’ needs, though the newest and more unusual varieties of vegetables and flowers can often be found only in the new year’s print and online catalogues.
The gardener in January. For avid home gardeners, January is month of hope-filled planning and gleeful anticipation. Here are a few thoughts on smoothing the way to a fully enjoyable planting time at winter’s end.
* Take a slow tour around the garden, note pad and pen in hand. Look for changes you’d like to make, spaces that might be ideal for a desired new plant. Check out areas available for vegetables and annual flowers and note potential placements for plantings you consider essential.
* On useable outdoor days, take care of tidying projects. In my garden, they abound. There is pathway weeding and topping up with fresh wood shavings, cleaning up debris still littering the ground from last month’s storms, re-defining plot edges — an much more. Almost every garden will have its own messy bits. Having them dealt with over the winter will be a gratifying thing in the spring.
* If you have grape or kiwi vines, prune them this month, before the sap begins rising in them at the first hints of warmth. Once the sap is flowing, pruning cuts bleed profusely. wisteria can also be pruned in January. Shorten new growth on side shoots to two buds.
* Make a list of vegetables and flowers the family most want to grow. Consider adding a new vegetable or/and flower to the garden’s usual plantings. Check a list of seeds to purchase against seeds left over from previous years, to avoid duplicating supplies. Most seeds last in god viable condition for three years, provided they have been stored in dry, dark, uniformly cool conditions. Exceptions are onion, leek, corn, parsley, larkspur, tender geranium (Pelargonium), salvia and verbena. Keep these for only one year; that is, sow a packet of seeds in two consecutive years only.
* To keep track of how old seeds are, mark each newly acquired seed packet with the year.
* Make a list of supplies needed for the upcoming growing season. These could include a basic tool that needs to be acquired or replaced, labels to mark plantings, indelible marker pens. If you grow some of your own transplants, check your supply of seeding flats and seeding mix. Seeding can start late this month or in early February with hardy vegetables and flowers that can be transplanted to the open garden or outdoor pots in late March or early April — onions, leeks, pansy and viola, sweet pea, snapdragon, lettuce, and early cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower.
* At some point this month you will notice primroses appearing in garden centres. They will flower for the longest possible time if displayed in a sheltered place outdoors, next to glass doors on a patio, balcony or deck, where they can stay cool and be enjoyed from inside the home. Create a colourful display with a few of the plants together on a plant tray or in a basket. Indoors, give primroses a cool, bright spot and water regularly.
