January has been a busy month for me where gardening type activities are concerned. For the last two weeks I’ve scoured and scavenged the alleyways within a quarter of a mile radius of where we live, on the hunt for discarded timber to make wooden raised beds at both our allotment plots, and in our front garden which is currently being transformed from a dull grassed area with a conifer left over from the previous tenant, into a permaculture food garden.

We had never thought of using the front garden before due it being shaded and North facing but since visiting  Patrick Whitefield’s Sister Cristina in Bristol, and seeing her amazing little productive little North facing garden, we’ve decided that its time to give it a go.

Winter crops

There is still some good food to be had on the allotment plot, the crops this week are some large healthy Leeks, some white German radish, and a small amount of carrots, that are still beating the frost and surviving by growing in an old recycling box above ground. There is also some fresh flat leafed Italian Parsley which is doing really well in the back garden, and two varieties of sage.

Jobs to be doing

January is the time to start chitting your seed potatoes, if you’ve not chit seed potatoes before, simply get an egg carton, and put a spud into each egg compartment of the carton and sit it on a windowsill until they are ready to plant out in the spring. Sowing onion seeds under glass is also something that we can be doing now, and as I’ve mentioned before, growing onions from seed is much cheaper than using sets, and the onions seem to be of a better quality.

Its also a good time to coppice timber now that trees are in their dormant cycle, we are going out to a piece of neglected overgrown unmanaged woodland next week to coppice timber for next years firewood, and to make an outdoor kitchen. Any other tree related jobs such as pruning and trimming back of fruit trees and hedging can also be carried out now.

I always sow my wild rocket and Land cress at this time of the year in trays on a shelf in the back garden, this is worth trying as you can grow a reasonable salad crop between now and May due to the plants being frost protected on the shelves.

Now is also a good time to sowing chilli and tomatoes indoors, I always sow some Tomato and chilli seeds in January, particularly varieties that have a long growing season in our climate such as Chocolate Habenero and Naga, in terms of the Tomatoes, I tend to sow Gardeners delight and money-maker now, and some of the more exotic polytunnel varieties in February. I would only advice sowing chilli and Tomato seeds now, if you have a South facing windowsill where the room is quite warm, otherwise waiting until the middle of February.