Are you already planning your vegetable, herb and flower garden or are you one of those people who think the beginning of the year is far too early for that? It's not at all! So instead of falling into winter depression, as many people do after the Christmas holidays, you can start your free time with the first preparations for the new gardening season and yes, we actually mean sowing seeds in January. What can you sow now?
Prefer vegetables at the beginning of the year (+ other fruits and salads)
Can you hardly wait to enjoy the delicious vegetables you have grown yourself from the garden? You can and should prefer the first varieties now, because they initially have a longer growth phase than you are used to with most other plants.
Sowing eggplants in January
The eggplant seeds germinate quite quickly. The bigger problem is the slow growth of the dark germs afterwards or as soon as the first pair of leaves have appeared. As you know, plants should only be transplanted when the first “real” leaves appear and the plant has generally become a little stronger. And so that you don't miss the right time to plant in the garden due to the long waiting time, it's worth starting the sowingto start in January.
Sow chili plants in January
Hobby gardeners usually sow the chili peppers quite late, out of pure ignorance. The advantage of sowing in January is not only that you can harvest chilies in late summer and not in autumn. In addition, the fruits get more summer sun this way, which results in more fruit and a better aroma.
How to overwinter chilifind out here.
Prefer vegetables in January – Physalis
Since the Physalis is a fairly easy-care plant, we would like to mention it here too, even though it is not yet one of the typical garden plants. Even the most novice will have no trouble germinating the berry seeds, so it's worth a try. This means you will receive the first fruits earlier instead of mid-August.
What can you sow now – peppers
The same applies to the chili peppersthe sweet pepper. If you grow the plants indoors, you will gain some time and can harvest the first red pods earlier than usual.
What can you sow in January and prefer in the greenhouse or cold frame?
- Broad bean
- Cauliflower (early variety for early vegetable cultivation)
- Kohlrabi
- Spring onions
- Rote Beth
- Rotkohl
- Seed potatoes for early potatoes
- Salad
- Summer leeks
- Turnip
- sweet potatoes
- White cabbage
- Wintersalat
- Savoy cabbage (early variety)
- Onions
Tipp:If you want to harvest sugar pea shoots (i.e. not the pods), you can choose sugar peas to sow directly into the garden bed in January. The sprouts are very nutritious, taste sweet and are often used to add spice to salads.
Sowing in January – Which herbs are suitable?
Basil is a Mediterranean herb that would not survive the winter outdoors in our latitudes. That's why the plant has to be sown again and again, which most people do when the time has come for most other garden plants - in spring. However, we recommend that you sow the seeds now in order to bring the harvest forward. Like the eggplant, the herb plant has a very long growth phase after the otherwise rapid germination, which of course also delays the harvest time.
Other herbs:
- Wild garlic (cold germinator, so sow directly into the bed)
- Garden cress
- chervil
- Sprouts of all kinds
- Tea herbs
- Woodruff (cold germinator, so sow directly into the bed)
Sowing flowers in January
Enrich the flowerbed with these early beauties:
zinnias
These perennial bloomers benefit less from early sowing in January in that the flowers will be more abundant. The advantage is that the plants are then strong enough to go outdoors earlier and thus forestall the snail season. In addition, the young plants in particular are tasty for the pests. So they ariseless damage from the plague.
What to sow now – cosmos
With these flowers, sowing in January is also more advantageous when planting outdoors because of the stronger young plants.
More flowers for sowing directly outdoors in January
The following varietiesbelong to the cold germinatorsand need the winter cold to germinate later:
- Astern
- Flower bulbs (plant directly outdoors, but expect late flowering)
- Christrosen
- Iris
- Lilies
- Poppies
- violet
