You MUST Sow These Seeds In January | Gardening For Beginners

The gardening season doesn't start in March like a lot of people think. It starts now in January with the dream. Hello again, everybody, and welcome back to the channel. I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas. Now that Christmas is over, we are full of mince pies and cheese and a little bit confused and not too sure what day of the week it is. And the January blues are now starting to kick in. But there is a way that we can cure these January blues. We can get sowing some seeds, of course. Now is the time we can finally start sowing some seeds. My fingers are itching to get sowing some seeds as well. I brought my seed box with me here as well. Lots of things which we can start sowing this month. Really exciting stuff. It is still quite early yet, so we do need to be a bit careful. There's some things that we can't sow just yet and we'll get into that in a moment. But, you know, there's quite a few things here we can still sow in January. So if you're excited to get sowing like me, then keep on watching and I'll tell you what you can get sowing this month. But before we get into the video, I'd just like to say if you find this video useful or entertaining in any way, do hit that like button because it helps me reach more people and teach more people. And I really appreciate that. So with all that being said, let's get right into it. What are we sowing in the month of January? OK, so I'm going to start off by saying that I live in Plant Hardiness Zone 8B in the northwest of the UK. A lot of these things which I'm sowing in January are going to be sown under the cover of a greenhouse or a polytunnel or at home on a sunny windowsill or on a shelf with grow lights. If you have them, I have them. And that's what I'm going to be doing with some of my things. These things are not going to be sown outside just yet because it's too cold. The ground is probably going to be frozen in January, even for us in the UK. So do bear that in mind. These things are going to be sown at home or in a greenhouse. Now, I know a lot of tomato lovers are going to be very eager to get sowing their tomatoes in January. I'm a big lover of tomatoes and I love growing tomatoes as well. I can't wait to get sowing them. But it's a little bit early to be sowing tomatoes in January. I've got a packet of tomatoes here. This variety is called Cocktail Crush and it's a hybrid. And it says that I can sow these from January to April. Now, I'm not going to sow these in January because it's just far too early. Tomato plants grow so quick, much quicker than like a pepper plant would grow, for example. If I sow these in January, I'm going to have a tomato plant that's too big to stay at home protected from the frost whilst it's too early to put them outside or in the greenhouse because our last frost date is around the middle of May and I don't want to be moving the tomato plants anywhere near the allotment until at least April, May at the very earliest. So if I were to sow these in January, I'm going to end up with tomato plants at home because I can't bring them down to the allotment yet and they're just going to become pot bound and stressed. And I'm going to end up negatively impacting the health of the tomato plant. If you have a heated greenhouse, on the other hand, I don't. But if you do, you can sow them in January and grow them in your greenhouse. You know, if you've got the space to grow your tomatoes and protect them from the frost early on, absolutely fine. Go ahead and do that. But for most people, if you live in the northern hemisphere in the cool climates, you're not going to be sowing tomatoes in January unless you have somewhere to grow them that's heated. So, yeah, I just like to get that one out there because I know I'm going to see a lot of people sowing the tomatoes in January and then a couple of months down the line, they're going to have tomatoes plants that are massive on the windowsill that can't go outside yet because, you know, tomato plants can grow from a seed to a 12 inch tall plant in like six weeks. It doesn't take very long at all. It's amazing how fast they grow. Anyway, with all that being said, let's get into the actual list of what we're sowing in January now. OK, so we're going to start off with one of my favorites, peppers. Now you can sow the sweet peppers, which I've got here, or you can sow chilies as well. Chilies take much longer to grow than sweet peppers, especially like your spicy chilies, so you're definitely going to want to start them in January. But I like to sow my bell peppers, my sweet bell peppers in January as well, because they do take quite a while to get going. I'm going to sow these in my propagator, my heated propagator at home. And then when they get the tree leaves, I'll prick them out and put them on into pots of multipurpose compost. So these are going to be growing under my grow lights. A sunny windowsill will suffice. South facing windowsill because you want them to get plenty of light. Otherwise you can end up with leggy plants. So, yeah, sweet peppers. I've got New Ace, which is a variety I grow every single year. These always do really well for me. They did well last year as well. I had some pretty decent peppers, actually. We had quite a good year for them. And a new one I'm trying here, which is a yellow one, Fiesta. Fiesta F1, which is a new one. So we'll give them a go, see how they do. So sweet peppers, chili peppers, get them sown in January at home on a sunny windowsill or on a grow light shelf if you've got one. And you'll be off to a lovely head start to the growing season. Now, another one which we're going to be sowing in January because it requires a long growing season is aubergines. It's not a very interesting seed packet, this one. There's no pictures on it. But this is another new variety I'm trying and it's called Jeannie and it's a hybrid. Now, usually I try the Black Beauties or the Moneymaker varieties of aubergines. What's the new on this one? It's supposed to be really good. Yeah, aubergines do take a long time to get going. You can sow aubergine seeds in a heated propagator, which I'll probably be doing, or sow them in module trays on a bright, sunny windowsill and they'll be off to a lovely head start. They do require a bit of warmth to get going, just like the peppers. OK, we're going to go over some hardier vegetables now, some things that you can sow in a greenhouse or a polytunnel. You don't have to sow these at home. These will be sown in the greenhouse. And the first one is lettuce. This is a lovely packet of mixed lettuce, which I grow every single year. There's all sorts of different types in here. Red leaf and all sorts of different colours in there. Those are really good. I found it much easier than sowing individual packets of lettuce. I just like a good economical mixture like that. And I'll sow these in module trays of multi-purpose compost in the greenhouse in January. And then around February, March time, I'll plant them outside because they are quite cold hardy things and they'll survive light frosts. They'll be ready in about 10 to 12 weeks after I sow them. So if I sow these in January, I could be harvesting my first pickings from around March, April time, potentially. So that is really good. Now, another one very similar to the mixed leaves, spinach, another leafy green, quite a cold hardy leafy vegetable that as well. And that will give us some lovely pickings through the spring as well if we sow those in January. I'm just going to sow those in module trays of multi-purpose compost, the same way I'll do the lettuce, or you can just sow them in trays of compost if you want, and then just prick them out and pop them up outside. Spinach grows quite well in modules, in clumps actually. I'll sow two or three seeds per module and then when they've got a couple of sets of tree leaves, I'll pop them out and stick them outside where I'm growing them in the raised beds. They grow quite well in clumps like beetroot does. Now, in January, you can be doing some early sowings of beetroot as well. I like to sow these in module trays in the greenhouse in January. I sow two or three per module and then about a month after that, I will transplant the whole cell into my raised beds outside. So, yeah, if you want to start sowing some beetroot in January, you can get them sown undercover and you'll have some lovely early pickings of beetroot in the springtime. So that variety is bolt hardy, but I've also got some golden beetroot as well, which I'm going to be sowing this year. So I'm quite excited to try those. There's all sorts of different colours, variations of beetroot, which you can try. Stripey ones, white beetroot, yellow beetroot, all sorts of different interesting types. Now, I'm going to be starting some brassicas in January. I think I'm going to be sowing some of this cauliflower. This variety is called all year round, so it's got quite a large window for sowing this one. And I'm also going to be making some early sowings of cabbage as well. This is a lovely variety, Golden Acre Primo 2. I grow this one every single year and it performs really well without fail. And the cauliflower and the cabbage, get them sown in module trays filled with seed compost or multi-purpose compost. And after a few weeks, when they've got a couple of sets of true leaves, pot them on into nine centimetre pots. And then around April, May time, you should have some lovely little brassica plants in nine centimetre pots that will be ready to be planted outside, wherever you want to plant them. I'm going to be growing them in raised beds this year because my ground is quite heavy clay. So I've made a lot of raised beds to grow my stuff in this year. The next thing on our list is something which I've already sown already. Yeah, I've already sown them. I sowed them on Boxing Day, which is a traditional time to sow them. And that is onions. I've only got this one packet here because I've sown all my other onions already. But I've sown some Aylsha Craig, which are a nice onion, nice sized onions. They perform really well every single year on my plot. They don't store very well, but for the size of the bulb and the results that I get, I think it's well worth growing them. So I grow them every year. I've also got a variety called Regensberger, if I'm pronouncing that correct, it's a Dutch variety of onion. White onion, just like the Aylsha Craig, but they store much better into the winter months. So I've got that for the longevity, for the storage purposes. And I'm growing a variety of red onion called Red Magnate, and that's a hybrid onion. And they produce some nice, lovely red onions. And those are all sown in modules at the moment on the grow light shelves at home. I just sowed two or three per module and I'll probably just thin them out once they start to grow. So then I've got one onion seedling per module. In previous years, I've just sown onions in trays of compost like that with some vermiculite on top. And then once the onions start to reach a few inches tall and they've got a couple of leaves on them, I'll prick them out and put them into modules. That's a very tedious job. This year I'm sowing them in modules, so hopefully I don't have to do that this year. But yeah, sow your onions in trays of multipurpose compost or in modules if you want to do that. Even a heated propagator works really well, I've found, but I'm growing my peppers in them this year. Yeah, I sow them in trays of compost, sprinkle some vermiculite on top to hold in the moisture and to hopefully prevent damping off as well. And you're off to a really good start. If you don't want to do them from seeds, though, you can sow onion sets instead. These are little tiny onions which already have a year's worth of growth on them. It's much easier to grow onions from sets. So if you're a beginner and you want it to be a bit easier, you can plant your onions from sets. You can plant them in modules in January, undercover, in around six to eight weeks, they'll be ready to be planted outside. They're much easier to grow than seeds, a bit more expensive. They will definitely take much less time to grow. You'll be harvesting them a bit earlier. And that is why really you sow onion seeds much earlier. As I said, the traditional time is Boxing Day for a lot of gardeners, but you can sow them in January just fine. Seeds or onion sets, get them sown in January. And you should be harvesting some onions around June, July time. OK, so we're going to be moving away from the edible crops now and more towards flowers. And January is a good time to be sowing some of them flowers which take a long time to grow. Flowers such as petunia, antirhinums, even marigolds. I found that starting them in January gets you off to a good head start with the marigolds. I grow a lot of marigolds with my tomatoes. It deters a lot of pests and they look really good as well. They look really good alongside the tomatoes in the polytunnel. And yeah, I just love the burst of orange that they give in the garden. And things such as geraniums as well, they are best started early because they take quite a long time to get going. So if you're up for a challenge and you want to sow geraniums, if you want to grow them from seed, I mean, you can get geraniums from the garden centre in the spring if you want, but if you're like me and you like a challenge, get your geranium seeds started in January. And one of my absolute favourite flowers is sweet peas. January is a good time to start sowing your sweet peas. They're quite cold hardy as well. So unlike the petunias and the antirhinums and the geraniums, which need to be sown at home on a warm windowsill or under grow lights, you can actually sow your sweet peas in an unheated greenhouse and they'll germinate slowly and then they'll grow gradually through late winter and into early spring. They can tolerate quite cool temperatures, the sweet peas. You can sow your sweet peas in root trainers if you'd like, because they do have quite long roots and they don't really like root disturbance that much, similar to beans really and edible peas as well. They don't really like their roots being disturbed. These are the root trainers. You just fill them up with compost, pop a sweet pea seed in there and the roots fill these things very nicely. And then when it's time to plant them out, you just open them up like that and you've got the compost and the roots nicely there and you just pop them out and plant them and it's minimal root disturbance. I use these quite a lot for beans as well, not just sweet peas. Beans, sweet peas, edible peas do quite well in these. But if you want, if you've not got any root trainers, that's fine. You can just get a nine centimetre pot like that, fill it with multipurpose compost and then maybe pop three or four sweet pea seeds in it and they'll grow happily. They'll germinate quite slowly to begin with because it's going to be quite cold in January. But as we get towards February and March, they'll start to pick up nicely. And then you should end up with some lovely flowers around June, July, August time. So, yeah, get the sweet peas sown in January. If you love growing sweet peas like I do, the varieties which I've got, by the way, if you're wondering, I've got a couple of them, I've got some Perfume Delight, a highly fragranced variety, obviously, and King Size Formula Mixed. They're just a mixture of blooms. So, yeah, that's what I'm growing this year. So, yeah, lovely, lovely stuff. That is what we're sowing in January. Quite a lot, actually, to be honest, isn't there? A lot. It's very, very early. And whilst we can't sow things like tomatoes, unless we've got a heated greenhouse, there is still quite a lot of things you can sow. A lot of these things are going to be sown under the cover of a greenhouse or at home. The things such as the peppers and the aubergines, for example, are going to be sown on a warm windowsill at home or under the grow lights if you have them. Even my onions under the grow lights at home. I could well plant them in the greenhouse if I wanted to. You can do that. They're just going to take longer to get going. So you don't have to do them all at home. You know, an unheated greenhouse should suffice for a lot of these things. But, you know, the peppers, the aubergines, they're going to have to be at home where there's no frost whatsoever. So I do hope you found this video useful, guys. Do let me know what you're sowing in the month of January. It's an exciting month for gardeners. Now is the time where the garden dream is really coming to life. And we're really thinking about the growing season ahead. We can finally get sowing some seeds. So, yeah, let me know what you're growing. I'm excited to know. That is just a few things which I'm sowing. If you found this video useful, guys, remember to hit that like button. And if you haven't already, by the way, and you want to see more videos like this when I release them every week, I usually do a video every single week, whether it be informative how-to videos like this or allotment vlogs. I make a video every single week if I can. And if you want to see more of these videos, hit the subscribe button and you'll never miss whenever I release them every week. And if you press that bell icon, you'll be notified as well. So that's all for now, guys. I hope you all stay safe. Happy sowing. I will see you in the next one.