The Gardening Year
Your month by month guide to sowing, growing, harvesting, and jobs for the month
In the gardening seasons it is important to plan your sowing, growing and harvesting seasons.
The following guide should ensure that you do not miss out on essential planning and preparation to ensure the longest seasons possible.
Don’t worry if everything is not exact to the timetable as weather conditions will vary in different parts of the country, so use your common sense and also read your instructions on seed and bulb packets.
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January
Jobs for the month
What a dull month January cab be. The Christmas decorations have come down to leave everywhere inside looking bare, and there is not much more going on outside. This is a classic time for me to pour over seed catalogues, plan what i want to grow, review what went well last year (and of course not so well! – none of us gardeners are perfect) and look at new varieties and even new types of herbs and vegetables.
Garden Birds – At this time of the year there is very little natural food supply available for our feathered friends so it is important to supplement their needs with additional food and water. Fill up your bird feeders regularly and birds will be really welcome of fat balls in the winter to help them stay warm and keep their weight up.
Sow
Broad Beans – I sow my broad beans in the greenhouse in January. I sow them in saved empty toilet rolls. This encourages a good long root growth, the whole toilet roll can be planted out into the ground when ready to save root disturbance, and of course it is good for the environment.
Harvest
February
Jobs for the month
Sow
Under Cover – Chillies,
Harvest
March
Jobs for the month
Sow
If you have a heated greenhouse or heated propagator then the following seeds can be sown this month:
Plant
March is the ideal time to plant summer bulbs that will provide your flower borders with an abundance of colour throughout the summer months. Most bulbs are perennial (although not all) so will come back year after year.
Harvest
April
April is traditionally the month when we think of ‘April Showers’ and Easter eggs!!! But the weather is also starting to hot up, the light levels extend well into the evenings
Jobs for the month
Pruning Roses –
May
Spring is well and truly in full flow now with warm days and nights and the risk of ground frost almost over (although the folklore does go “ne’er cast a clout till May be out”) which roughly means not to put your winter clothing away till May is out. It is a very busy month both in the garden, greenhouse and on the vegetable plot, so try not to get too overwhelmed.