Jobs for January?

[MummyPigsKnickers]

I'm a complete novice gardener with quite a large garden to tackle. It's not a jungle, it's under control, just a bit bare. We have a thatched cottage and I see all these other beautifully maintained cottages with rambling roses and lavender and I just wish ours would look like that! We look like the creepy old haunted house at the top of the hill! So, jobs for January...what should I be doing ATM? Anything that I can be putting in the ground or is it too late now and just a case of tidying up and sweeping leaves? Thanks all wise green fingered ones!

[CuttedUpPear]

There is a lot of tidying up to do at this time of the year.
Any perennials (those plants that come up and flower every year but die right back in the winter) can be tidied up by cutting their dead foliage back to ground level.

If you have a veg patch then you could pop some carpet or black landscaping fabric over the areas which you will be planting in the spring.

Roses can be pruned now but with all this mild weather it might bring them into leaf which will be affected by frosts.

However if you do want to give them a tidy, take out all dead, diseased or damaged growth and remove any crossing branches to prevent rubbing.

Try to cut just above a bud site but don't worry too much.

It's not a good time to plant plants but there may be a few cheapo bulbs left in the shops. Stick these in now, but be warned off buying a lot of them as their success rate may be affected by this late planting.

[EauRouge]

I've done some tidying and pruning.

Also coming up with mad ideas about what you want to do in the garden this year. I usually jot down some ideas and write a list of what I want to grow that year.

[MummyPigsKnickers]

Thank you for all that CuttedUpPear that's given me the kick up the backside I've needed to get outside and get started. I will try and tackle some of our roses that have grown very high up the side of our house-I've been told its quite difficult to kill a rose...so I hope that's true!

And the bulbs...I bought a few bags of bulbs back in the autumn, and they have been sat in the boot of my car ever since I noticed this week that they have got some green shoots coming out now. Oh well, might as well chuck em in the ground and see what happens!

By the way...do you know anything about Hydrangeas?? I bought quite a large blue one last summer and its in a pot on our patio, should I be cutting this back as well or leave it? Its currently five spindly twigs looking very sorry for itself.

I'm going to be keeping an eye on this board now for more tips and ideas and you never know I might learn something, wonders never cease...thanks both for your help

[dreamingofsun]

it sounds like a mop head (ie big ball like flowers). If so you can prune it once the worst of the weather is past....say maybe end of feb. cut out any really weak/ruff/broken stems to the base. for the decent looking ones, cut the old flower heads off (they protect the plant during the winter( . do just above a bud and it will sprout new growth from there. also cut any that are too congested to the base.

add some compost or fertiser

[Rhubarbgarden]

Apple and pear trees can be pruned now. It's also the time to do gooseberries, black/redcurrants.

[CuttedUpPear]

If your roses are supposed to be climbing roses, they will often have backward-facing thorns which they use for hanging on with. These should be pruned back to the framework you want the plant to grow out from next year.

Don't prune your hydrangeas yet, they need their old growth intact to protect them from the frost. Prune them, like you would other semi hardy shrubs such as lavender, around April.