Overview
- Carry out a maintenance cut on apple and pear trees to remove competing shoots, upright water sprouts and overhanging fruit wood, curbing vigor and improving fruit set before buds swell.
- Turn and aerate compacted compost after winter wet to restart microbial activity, then work partially ripe material into planned vegetable beds.
- Begin indoor sowings of tomatoes, peppers and chili from February, providing steady warmth and strong light via a heated greenhouse or a bright windowsill with lamps.
- Audit seed stocks and map bed plans in January to order missing varieties and set crop rotations ahead of spring sowing.
- Protect plant health and wildlife by removing suckers on grafted ornamentals, discarding diseased hellebore leaves in residual waste, cleaning bird feeders and checking nest boxes.