What to do in your allotment in January
Written by Lee Senior
Happy New Year everyone! I always find January a strangely exciting time of year. The brand-new gardening season suddenly seems a lot closer and I can’t wait to get my hands dirty.
Nevertheless, patience really is a virtue. It’s only worth starting seeds off early if you can provide the conditions they need until planting out time in spring. January is the perfect time to plan and prepare before focusing on early season flowers and vegetables that require a long growing season (like exhibition-sized onions).
If you want larger onions grown from seed, an early variety such as F1 ‘Santero’ can be sown during January and February. Sow in gentle heat in a heated propagator or on a warm windowsill. If you’re growing to show, or you want to simply impress your allotment neighbours, try the variety ‘Exhibition’. And don’t forget to order your seed potatoes if you haven’t already. They’ll be ready for chitting on a windowsill when they arrive through the post.
Please remember to keep off the soil in the growing areas of your plot when the ground is waterlogged or frozen as it will do more harm than good. Happy growing!
Lee’s allotment checklists for January
Image: Sweet Pea ‘Anne Gregg’
Allotment flowers in January
- Sow sweet pea seeds this month in a modular seed tray or a root trainer tray under cover, either indoors on a sunny windowsill or in the greenhouse. Use good quality seed compost, and make sure your seedlings neither dry out nor sit in waterlogged soil when they emerge.
- Dianthus ‘Sugar Baby Mix’ can also be sown towards the end of the month.
- One of my favourite perennials is the stunning delphinium which needs a long season to flower in the first year. Delphinium ‘Delight Mix’ should bloom in late summer from a late winter sowing, and is well worth the effort.
- Sow antirrhinums, lobelia and geraniums thinly in seed trays in a sheltered spot, either in the greenhouse or indoors. Treat your plants like annual bedding in the spring – plant them up in mixed containers to decorate the allotment.
Allotment vegetables in January
- Sow exhibition-size onion seed in the greenhouse or on a windowsill, using a seed tray or a re-purposed clean empty butter tub. These large bulbs require a long growing season to put on size. Try onion ‘Ailsa Craig’, or onion ‘Globo’ as well as the popular giant ‘Exhibition’.
- Sow shallot ‘Simiane’ and regular onion ‘Walla Walla’ indoors in trays this month.
- From the middle of January, sow early cropping carrot ‘Amsterdam Forcing 3’ directly into a polytunnel bed, or outdoors in unfrozen ground under a cloche. Crop the sweet roots in late March and into April.
- Sow super-hardy broad bean ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ or ‘The Sutton’ now in rows in unfrozen ground outdoors on the plot. Cover with a cloche to protect seedlings from the worst of the cold and to warm the ground to speed up germination. Alternatively, sow your seed in trays on a sunny windowsill or in the greenhouse.
- Sow aubergine ‘Black Beauty’ seeds in a warm bright space. Ensure they stay at a temperature of 15 – 20 degrees celsius for successful germination.
- The white mooli radish ‘Neptune’ can be sown in January in gentle heat. It has a mild flavour and has excellent resistance to bolting. You can grow them on to maturity in large containers in a greenhouse at this time of year.
- If your allotment beds are too cold to support speedy growth, try repurposing the kitchen windowsill to grow some super-quick leaf crops. Sow kale shoots in a shallow tray for nutritious leaves, ready to harvest in 4 weeks. Grow your own pea shoots too! Sow a layer of pea seeds in a repurposed butter tub or shallow tray using multi-purpose compost in your allotment shed, greenhouse or indoors on a sunny windowsill. Cut the pea shoots when they’re a couple of inches high to add to salads. Sprouting seeds are also a good quick indoor crop to lift a winter salad, try alfalfa or broccoli green sprouting.
- Sow a mix of salad leaf seeds for a fresh harvest within three weeks. Sow salad ‘Winter Mix’ in a long deep container in the greenhouse or a sunny windowsill. Sow a new pot with salad seeds every couple of weeks for a continuous supply of fresh leaves through the first few months of the year.
Image: Kale shoots seeds
Image: Rhubarb ‘Victoria’
Allotment fruit in January
- Place forcing covers over your rhubarb crowns if they start showing signs of growth this month, to encourage long tender stems to start developing. Make your own forcing covers by repurposing a black plastic compost bin or an upturned rubbish bin with a few holes drilled in the top.
- Check your fruit tree ties this month. Tighten or loosen tree ties as needed.
- Continue to plant out bare-rooted fruit trees and bushes as the weather allows. Use a tree guard and support stake to brace your newly planted tree and protect it from damage by hungry deer and rabbits.
- Now is a good time to prepare a new strawberry bed by clearing weeds and adding copious amounts of well-rotted organic matter. The beds will last for three years so good ground preparation is important while the soil is bare. Sow alpine variety strawberry ‘Regina’ seeds in a seed tray, or order strawberry plants if you prefer varieties with larger fruits.
Crops to harvest in January
- Keep cropping leeks, leaving them in the ground until you need them.
- Crop brassicas like Brussels sprouts, kale, winter cabbages and cauliflower this month.
- Pull up root vegetables like swede and parsnip.
- Purple sprouting broccoli starts to crop this month! Enjoy the tender florets steamed with a knob of butter and a sprinkle of salt.
- Harvest the remainder of your Jerusalem artichokes this month.
Image: Parsnip ‘F1 Panorama’
General January allotment jobs
- Have a go at growing your own mushrooms. Set up these kits indoors in a warm place away from direct sunlight. Choose from regular button mushrooms, to the more exotic oyster or shiitake to make your very own soups, stocks and pies.
- Invest in a heated propagator to speed up germination of seeds and allow seeds to be sown all year round.
- Buy necessary growing supplies for the coming year like fleece, compost and plant labels.
- Check on your stored potatoes, garlic, onions and shallots. Remove any that show signs of rot, or that are soft to the touch.
- Use the hard frozen ground as an opportunity to do some manual work on the plot. Shift manure, planks or erect compost bins while your plot is mud free. If the ground is soft and wet, then stay off it to avoid compaction.
- Review what worked in the allotment last year, and make a bed plan to keep organised. January is a great time to order vegetable seeds and plan out your crop rotation.
- Keep checking over allotment structures for wind damage. Check the netting on your brassicas to fix any holes and cover any exposed plants.
- Sharpen loppers, secateurs and pruning saws. Check over power tools and mowers – now’s the best time to conduct routine maintenance on garden machinery.
- It’s worth making regular checks on your sheds and outbuildings for any water ingress or weather damage throughout the winter. Problems that are spotted early are easier to deal with.
- Clean your allotment greenhouse ready for the coming growing season.
Planning ahead
- Order your asparagus crowns for planting in February. Prepare your asparagus beds now by digging in deep ridges. Planting your crowns on top of the ridges will keep them free-draining, just as they like it.
- Order first early seed potatoes now ready for February planting. When they arrive, take them out of their container and lay them out somewhere cool and dry to ‘chit’ prior to planting.
- Order chilli seeds ready to sow next month. Choose a mix of heats, colours and growth habits to ensure you get a fun and versatile harvest in summer. Remember, the hotter the chilli, the longer the growth period it’ll need to develop a strong flavour.
Image: Potato ‘Maris Bard’
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