January means starting a new calendar, and one of the first things you do is flick through the pictures and look at each month, maybe you have a calendar full of panoramic images, maybe you make your own calendar using family photos taken the previous year.
How about if someone was to challenge you to make a calendar up using pictures taken of your garden for each month of the year? What parts of the garden are your favourite? What flowers bring you the most joy? Which blooms do you adore to smell? What fruits do you enjoy picking the most?
This is a great to time year to take stock of the previous year and plan ahead for 2017. However bear in mind that this past year was unusually wet, August was disastrous, so don’t give up on some projects just because you had a bad first year at it!
A job for 2017 could be adding a new composting corner to your garden
Start by taking stock of what you have, and how productive the space is. Now this doesn’t just apply to vegetable gardens.
Look at each flower bed in the garden and work on a plan to ensure that through the year you have some form of interest happening, whether this is flowers or stems or foliage colour. Then think about the amount of weeding you’re doing, do you need to add more ground cover plants into the borders to reduce down the bare soil?
On the ‘facilities’ are you making good use of rain water – do you need to install a harvesting system for the garden? – Do you have a good system for composting or creating fertility from all the hedge trimmings – Maybe you need to create a composting area within the garden? Do you have enough space for sowing seeds – Would the addition of a small glasshouse or the purchase of a heated propagator add to your enjoyment and increase productivity?
Within your vegetable garden are you using the ground as efficiently as possible – do you have something being planted and harvested throughout the year? Have you continual soil coverage?
Maybe consider doing a Growing Fruit & Vegetable night class with the Donegal ETB in Letterkenny?
Nothing in gardening is instant, everything is planning ahead. For example adding regular amounts of compost to your garden soil will reduce pests and diseases and improve growth in the garden, but this takes a number of years of addition before results are truly seen.
You don’t plant a hedge today for privacy tomorrow (you see where I’m going with this). So take some stock now, and get planning ahead for 2017.
Job for the week:
Get into the local garden centre and pick yourself up some of the half price (or less) Spring Flowering Bulbs. Bulbs such as Hyacinths, Tulips, Muscari and the likes will be on offer at half price now. When these are planted in your garden this year they will flower later than normal, but then in following years will flower as normal.
The only thing to do is give the bulbs a wee squeeze before you buy just to make sure none are ‘rotten’ in the packs. A great time of year to add some more spring colour to the garden.
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