The garden in late January 2023

As January comes to an end, gardens begin to stir from winter inactivity. In our community garden, kales, kalettes and sprouts provide winter greens, and leeks and daikon radish ingredients for warming soups.

Tuscan kale, sprouts and sprouting broccoli, protected by netting from pigeons, have been weeded and earthed up.

Frosted winter lettuce - Bath Island Cos and Garnet Oak Leaf both from Seedsavers - also grown under the protection of netting, are reviving and continue to supply leaves for salads.

Clearing around the pink nubs of rhubarb that are beginning to show., removing old leaves and weeds, mulching with well-rotted manure and covering with a large pot to exclude light, will encourage early growth. The forced stalks, harvested when they are 20-30cm long, are a delicious crop when there is little else ready in the garden.

Chives are one of the first herbs to wake from winter dormancy. Green spikes of chives are already appearing in the herb bed.

At this time of year, work around the garden, tidying and improvements, and even picking winter crops, depends entirely on the weather. Annual weeds are growing already and can quickly flower and go to seed if not controlled. Docks, if not dug out while small, develop deep, branching taproots that will be tough to remove.

But as Mrs Beeton wrote in her book Garden Management published way back in the 1860s, “This is also the season when … forethought of the gardener may be exhibited. … to lay down … plan of operations for the year, or at least for the next three months, in doing this much of the successful cultivation depends.”