There are a number of jobs to do in the garden for January

In The Garden with Arthur O'Meara

You’d be forgiven for being less than enthusiastic when it comes to gardening in early January. But, on nice days, there are a number of jobs you might consider, and the rewards will be well worth the effort.

As the days start to lengthen, things will start to happen underground in the garden – you can already see the shoots of the spring bulbs start to appear.

Bare rooted trees, hedging and raspberry canes should be planted now. They will settle in and have taken root ready to take advantage of the coming spring.

Plant now in preference to the end of March – your plants will thrive and require less attention for the rest of the year.

If you grow rhubarb, apply a good mulch of farmyard manure around the plants now, taking care not to cover the crown. The result is a bumper crop in five or six weeks.

I find that if I do not put on the farmyard manure on rhubarb, the resulting crop is a lot less and also requires a lot more sugar when cooking.

The farmyard manure should be one to two years old – don’t use material that has been left in a pile for years to grow weeds, or you will transfer the weed problem to your garden. You would be better off to buy the proper stuff in the garden centre (it’s the right consistency and it also looks better). Roses will also benefit from the same treatment.

Your vegetable patch, if it’s anything like mine, could do with a good cleanout now.

Remove all debris and damaged or spent foliage, as they just harbour pests and diseases.

I would refrain from digging too much as you can damage the soil structure – just put on a good layer of farmyard manure or good quality homemade compost, and let nature do the rest.

Your soil will be protected from the ravages of winter and the worms will do the rest.

The resulting crops will be at least 20% better and you will have fewer weeds – now that’s worth doing.