January

Key task

Leave flowerheads of plants such as Hydrangea paniculata to stand over winter and add impact to your borders in colder weather

Monthly round up…

Although it’s January there’s still pruning to do and seeds to sow. It’s also a good month for bird spotting – look out for waxwings feeding on berries and brambling, a winter migrant from Scandinavia that looks similar to a chaffinch.

Prune

■ Autumn-fruiting raspberries

■ Climbing roses

■ Fruit bushes – gooseberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants

■ Grapevines – before sap starts rising

■ Wisteria

Plant

■ Bare-root fruit trees and bushes

■ Bare-root hedging and trees

■ Bare-root roses

■ Evergreen shrubs

■ Garlic

■ Shallots (under cover)

■ Winter bedding (violas, cyclamen, heathers)

Sow

Indoors

■ Begonias

■ Cabbages

■ Chillies

■ Lobelia

■ Onions

■ Pelargoniums

Outdoors

■ Early broad beans

Harvest

■ Brussels sprouts

■ Cabbages

■ Cavolo nero

■ Celeriac

■ Jerusalem arthichokes

■ Kale

■ Leeks

■ Parsnips

■ Sprouting broccoli

■ Turnips

This months Star plants

1 Peucedanum verticillare

In winter the sun will illuminate the frost-rimed seedheads of this short-lived perennial, known as giant hog fennel. It has flat yellow-green flower heads on purple stems in early summer.