Friends of the Earth Cardiff Cyfeillion y Ddaear Caerdydd

Grow your own food in January. Photo: Lyndsay Maiden, Cardiff Friends of the Earth

Jobs for January

Well it has been a slightly wild January, the weather has been wet and windy causing some damage to structures. It's worth checking your plot regularly to make sure there's no wind damage on the site. On warmer days you can:

• Make sure your winter mulches are all still in place.
• Hoe out those winter weeds as chickweed and groundsel
• Prepare the ground by hoeing and digging over - removing weeds.
• Prune white, red and blackcurrants.
• Sow hardy lettuces, and radishes in cold frames.
• In milder weather sow cabbage, broad beans, spinach, early carrots and sea kale.
• Sow tomatoes inside.
• Plant out onion bulbs, shallot bulbs and Jerusalem artichokes.
• Collect manure from local stables and start rotting it down. You can use un-rotted manure to create a warm bed in a cold frame or under glass in your greenhouse.

Food for free - with care you can harvest what many people see as weeds; for example at this time of year you could be eating the leaves of Fat-hen in the same way as spinach, Shepherd's Purse in a stir fry, Watercress in many forms from soups to salads, Alexanders - eat the stems like asparagus, Dead nettles cooked with butter, spring onions and pepper, Cornsalad or Lambs lettuce as a tasty salad leaf, all parts of the milk thistle, Dandelions at this time of year the roots are good stir fried and the young leaves as a salad.

Got a few hours to spare? Go to the Cardiff Council website and get an allotment.