Happy New Year and a very warm welcome back to the garden for the new year. Summer is a great time of year to stop and to enjoy the fruits of the previous labour. On saying this, there is still much to be achieved in the summer garden.

Garden jobs for January:

• Treat gardens, pots and hanging baskets with a plant and soil conditioner such as Seasol. This will help your plants cope with extreme summer conditions.
• Applying a water retention granule such as Saturaid to your soil or lawn can reduce water use by up to 50%. This will save on the water and make efficient use of the natural resource of summer rains.
• Water Smart! It’s best to water first thing in the morning, to give your soil a chance to absorb the moisture before it gets too hot.
• Top up your gardens with mulch, it looks great and helps with water retention.
• Consider some shade cloth to cover garden beds. It’s perfect for protecting sensitive veggies on those hot summer days.
• Crops such as sweetcorn and tomatoes are likely to be looking top heavy, so make sure you have adequate support for your plants. Add a layer of mulch such as pea straw or sugar cane mulch to maintain ideal growing conditions.
• Raise mower blades and avoid scalping your lawn. Scalping your lawn will encourage weeds to take hold and reduce the foliage protection to the soil. Short grass effectively results in shallow lawn roots and grass with poor disease resistance.
• Spray roses to control black spot and pick up fallen leaves around your roses.
• Watch out for unwanted pests such as aphids, thrips and caterpillars. Ask about safe methods of control.
• De-head and fertilise flowering plants such as fuchsias and geranium. They will be back in flower in no time.
• Harvest summer vegetables regularly so they’ll continue to produce more crops.
• Cut back and feed annual flowers.

What to grow in January:

Flowers:

• Alyssum
• Celosia
• Cosmos
• Gerbera,
• Impatiens
• Lobelia
• Nasturtium
• Marigold
• Petunia
• Phlox
• Portulaca
• Vinca
• Zinnia

In the Vegetable Garden: