January: Bare Roots & Winter Structure

January often feels like the garden’s asleep, but it’s one of the best months for setting up a space that will quietly look after itself for years. A couple of hours outdoors now can save you weeks of effort later.

🛠 Jobs this month (time-poor friendly)

• Plant bare-root trees & shrubs. Cheaper than pots, easier to establish, and perfect in soft winter ground. Think fruit trees, currants, or even the start of a low-maintenance edible hedge (a “fedge”).

• Prune apples & pears. Nothing complicated — just open up the centre and remove crossing branches. (The Apple Tree Care Guide goes step by step if you’d like detail.)

• Leave perennials standing. Seedheads feed birds, hollow stems house insects, and the dried structure looks good against a frosty morning. We’ll cut back in spring when regrowth appears.

🌿 Plant spotlight: Persimmon

Persimmons (Diospyros kaki or D. virginiana) are one of those climate-smart choices that slot into a UK garden without looking out of place. Their broad, glossy leaves blend in through summer but are just different enough that visitors will ask about them.

As winters get milder, persimmons may crop more reliably — giving you unusual, delicious fruit with almost no fuss. Plant once, and they’ll quietly get on with it. Buy and plant before April so it can get going in spring.

🪴 A note from my garden

My own garden in January is far from perfect — a few soggy leaves here, a leaning stake there — but it doesn’t matter. The trees are rooting in, the stems are sheltering insects, and the structure still looks good from the kitchen window. That’s the whole point: a garden that feeds you, looks after wildlife, and doesn’t eat up all your time.

📖 If you want a hand

• Dream Garden Workbook → good for sketching ideas while the weather’s rough.

• Create an Accurate Garden Plan → if you want a digital map for planting, costs, or sharing with a gardener.

• Apple Tree Care Guide → handy this month for pruning basics.
  👉 Browse all freebies & courses here

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Here’s to a simple start to the year,
Mike
Garden Footprint — real gardens that give more than they take