JANUARY

FRUIT

·         Inspect any stored fruit and remove any that are rotten.

·         If conditions are right continue planting fruit trees and bushes.

·         Select and heel in scion wood in a cold sheltered and shaded position for grafting later.

·         Apply potash to strawberries, gooseberries, red and white currants.

·         Apply a balanced Fertilizer to cobnuts and filberts.

·         Check all tree stakes and ties for firmness.

·         Continue to prune apples and pears except in hard frost.

·          Continue to prune established and newly planted bush fruit.

·         Spray dormant fruit trees, canes and bushes with tar oil - controls over wintering aphid and sucker eggs, if not already done in December.

·         Inspect apples and pears for canker and treat where necessary.

·         Spray peaches and nectarines for peach leaf curl; repeat 10-14 days.

·         Cover fan trained above with plastic against the above.

VEGETABLES

·         Sow broad bean seeds under glass for an early summer harvest: plant out after hardening off in early spring.

·         Lime beds where necessary.

·         Force rhubarb by covering by upturned bins, boxes or special forcing pots. Do not cover the same plant the following year.

·         Turn compost heaps to increase decomposition.

·         Ventilate when possible frames to help prevent build-ups of mildew. Leave open on mild days but cover with sacking if frost is forecast.

·         Dig over ground for frost to break down.

LAWNS

·         Good month to have the mower serviced and any other tools sharpened.

·         Keep leaves and debris off the lawn.

·         Turfing can be carried out if the weather is dry and mild.

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The above helpful advice has been reproduced by kind permission of Will Hart, whose experience includes working for Blackburn Rovers FC (as a groundsman at their Training Ground, Academy and Ewood Park), for the Sultan of Oman (at his French residence in Fontainebleau, south of Paris) at the 1999 Martell Grand National at Aintree and for a variety of different sized local gardens and estates.  Impressive credentials I am sure you will agree!