Everything you need to grow...
Hot off the trowel
Gardens to Gander ​​
Another January and another new year. More time to explore new gardens, create new gardens or just nd a new plant you have never seen before.
West Dean Gardens open Mon-Fri 09.30am - 5.00pm.
Sat-Sun 09.00am - 5.00pm
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The National Garden Scheme (NGS)
Look on their website and find a garden near you to visit.
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Insector Clueso!
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The Asian Hornet has arrived in the UK, and hundreds of nests have been destroyed. However, it looks as though they have been the tip of the iceberg. They are avaricious insects that target most of our pollinators.
Our honey bees are at serious risk of their hives being invaded and the colonies being wiped out. These predators are smaller than the European Hornet, which is not a threat. The Asian Hornet can be identified by its yellow leg ends and a wide orange band towards the rear of its abdomen.
If you see one, please report it using the iPhone and Android ‘Asian Hornet Watch’ app. Alternatively, email: alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk
please include a photo if you can do so safely.
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Weeders Digest
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The Climate Change Garden by Sally Morgan and Kim Stoddart
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The RHS have recommended a book called The Climate Change Garden by Sally Morgan and Kim Stoddart. After our speaker last month gave a talk on gardening in the 21st century, this booked seemed very appropriate. It is an insight into problems gardeners could potentially face in our changing climate. Learn how to start creating a resilient garden for the future now to give it a better chance of survival. Guidance includes improving your soil, creating a resilient veggie patch and planting a climate change
Top gardening jobs for January ​
Often the coldest month.
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January might be the middle of winter, but as the days lengthen, the garden starts to grow. Now is a great time to plan for the coming gardening year and to order seeds and plants. Enjoy the fresh air on dry, sunny days, and check your winter protection, stakes, ties, and supports are still working after any severe weather. Also, put out food for birds and leave some garden areas uncut for a little longer to provide shelter for wildlife in your garden​
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1. . Prune apple and pear trees
2. Clean pots and greenhouses ready for spring
3. Keep an eye on watering houseplants
4. Plant now to boost winter fragrance in your garden
5. Inspect stored tubers of dahlia, begonia and canna for rots or drying out
6. . Keep an eye on gs and olives and guard against frost by covering with sacking or old fleece when frost threatens.​
7. Start forcing rhubarb
8. Plan your vegetable crop rotations for the coming season
9. Keep putting out food and water for hungry birds
10. Cut off hellebore leaves at the base to discourage black spot disease and show off the owers
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Musings
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‘‘Bare branches of each tree
on this chilly January morn
look so cold and forlorn.
Grey skies dip ever so low
left from yesterday’s dusting of snow.
Yet in the heart of each tree
waiting for each to wait and see
new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,
like magic, unlock springs sap to ow,
buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow’
Nelda Hartmann - January Morn.
‘The snowdrop, Winter’s timid child,
Awakes to life, bedew’d with tears’
Mary Robinson
‘The twelve months……..
Snowy, Flowy, Blowy,
Showery, Flowery, Bowery,
Hoppy, Croppy, Droppy,
Breezy, Sneezy, Freezy’
George Ellis
‘The old year has gone. Let the dead past bury it’s own dead.
The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time.
All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve
months’
Edward Payton Powell
‘Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth,
for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the
re: it is the time for home’
Edith Sitwell
‘No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference.
It is that from which all date their time, and count upon which
is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam’
Charles Lamb
And finally...
‘There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite
of any winter. One is the January thaw. The other is the
seed catalogues’
Hal Borland
