Jobs on the Smallholding: January

Are you new to smallholding life, wondering how best to start the new year on your land? Or are you just keen to find out how smallholders keep themselves busy in the depths of winter? Here’s a little look at our jobs list for the month of January!

January is a reasonably quiet month on the smallholding. Most of the garden and polytunnel beds are dormant for winter. There isn’t any fresh produce to manage. In many ways, it feels like the calm before the storm!

We like to use this time to reflect on how things panned out last year, and to consider how best to approach the year ahead of us.

Make a Plan for the Year

Now is the time to critically consider the main goals for the year ahead. Are you happy to try to maintain the status quo? Would you like to focus your efforts on doing a few things really well? Or is it time to branch out and try something new?

Are there any big projects that need tending to, such as repairing the fences or erecting a new outbuilding? Do you have any trips away from the smallholding on the calendar? Has appropriate cover been arranged?

Make your plan as detailed as you can. This will hopefully ward off any hiccups later in the year.

Let’s meander through the smallholding now, and consider the January to-do list for each area.

Garden

As the garden is mostly dormant, January is the perfect time to get organised and prepared for the busy months ahead. Inspect your module trays and pots. Give them all a good clean and repair any that are broken or damaged, wherever possible. Give your tools some attention too; ensure that they are thoroughly cleaned and take the time to repair any tools that are damaged.

Now is also an ideal time to edge your beds and maintain your paths. Top your paths up with bark or wood chip, if you use it. Crisp, clean lines go a long way to keeping your garden presentable!

I strongly recommend keeping a gardening journal. Begin by making a list of what you would like to grow this year. Then sketch a plan of your garden, including any greenhouses or polytunnels, with space allocated to each of the crops on your list, to ensure everything will fit. Make sure to compare your sketch to last year’s diagram to ensure proper crop rotation.

Once you are happy with your plan, go ahead and order your seeds! And if you need to buy in compost, make sure to do that, too!

Finally, once you have firmed up your planting plan, you can start to dig compost or manure into your garden beds destined for this year’s potatoes

Polytunnel

The polytunnel is in a similarly dormant state for the winter. So now is the time to clean the polytunnel and carry out any necessary repairs and maintenance to the plastic and underlying structure. This winter, while the polytunnel is empty., we also intend to install some additional shelves ready for our trays of seedlings in the spring.

Just the same as you have dome outdoors, edge your beds to reestablish those crisp, clean lines. And ensure all your paths are well defined and mulched.

Lastly, prepare your beds to ensure they are weeded and ready for spring planting. Add any soil improvers or amendments as necessary.

Animals

The precise jobs list will depend on the animals in your care! I have a series of animal husbandry posts that cover the day-to-day requirements for many of the animals you might expect to find on a smallholding.

Specific jobs for January include ensuring that the animals’ shelter is clean and tidy. Our sheep and alpacas choose to spend much more time in the stables over winter, so this area does need to be cleaned out and freshened up regularly.

When the weather is less favourable, I make sure to carry out more frequent checks on the general condition of my animals. With the field being wet underfoot throughout the autumn and winter months, I pay extra attention to the sheep and alpacas’ feet.

Give all your animals a little extra bedding to keep them warm at night. And provide some fresh hay for your grazing animals, as their pasture will likely be deteriorating.

House

The winter months bring a brief reprieve from processing and preserving garden produce. So, in a quiet moment, take the opportunity to marvel at your well-stocked pantry! Ensure good stock rotation of your preserved items. And keep track of how quickly your stocks are depleting; grow more of these next year!

If you are having to buy in any food stuffs, use these quiet weeks to research how you could produce these or similar items yourself.

As we enter the new year, having packed away the Christmas decorations, I like to have a deep clean through my home. I look at everything with a critical eye, decluttering items which no longer serve us, and carrying out any necessary repairs.

General Land Maintenance

The grass grows more slowly over winter, and as the sheep eat it down, the thuggish clumpy grasses are exposed. We scythe these regularly over winter, giving the sheep the opportunity to nibble at the fresh blades coming through.

Adverse weather over the winter months can bring trees down. These need to be cleared away, and any resulting damage to surrounding structures of course needs to be repaired. It is a nuisance, though it does help to keep our wood store topped up!

I hope this has been helpful! Stay tuned for our series of monthly posts this year, detailing all the work that keeps our smallholding running all year round!