Happy New Year to you!
We hope that 2020 is a great one for you, and that you reap bountiful harvests from your garden 🙂
As gardeners ourselves we know how tempting it is to get sowing straight away in the new year, but this is not necessarily a good plan.
- Plants need heat and light to grow well
- Even if you use an electric propagator or window sill there is just not enough light for some things to grow well at the moment so they can become leggy and weak as they search for more (non-existent) light
- Slow-growing plants like peppers and aubergines will benefit from being started early but only if they have extra heat AND light – you can buy really effective LED grow lights for not much money which is what we do
- Did you know that tomatoes grow so fast that plants started in March will only start cropping about 7-10 days later than plants sown in January? …but with so much less work
You can find out what seeds can be sown in January here:
‘Santiam Sunrise’ cherry tomato
2020 Catalogue
*** Our 2020 catalogue is now fully live ***
We have quite a few new varieties this year (click button below) including our all-time tastiest tomato called ‘Santiam Sunrise‘, bred as an open-pollinated alternative to the famous ‘Sungold’ F1 hybrid variety.
We also have some old favourites back on the shelf such as ‘Oregon Homestead Sweet Meat‘ squash – our take on ‘Crown Prince’ F1, and two sugar-snap peas: ‘Golden Sweet‘ and ‘Schweizer Riesen‘ (Swiss Giant).
These varieties are very popular and will likely sell out again this year so make sure you order early to avoid disappointment.
‘Golden Sweet’ sugar-snap pea
Growing tips for January
January is a quiet time in the garden but there’s plenty of bits and pieces that you can do:
- Turn compost heaps to speed up this amazing process and warm up your body on a cold winter day.
- Repair any garden infrastructure such as wooden raised beds before the busy spring period.
- Tool care – oiling wooden handles and metal blades, cleaning off rust, sharpening. This is surely one of the most cathartic winter jobs.
- Divide comfrey plants if you want to increase the size of your patch. Buy and plant comfrey cuttings if you don’t already have a patch.
- Crops to harvest: kale, sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts, root veg, winter salads, winter cabbage, leeks.
- Plan your growing season and be prepared by stocking up on seeds!