Monty Don reveals one job every gardener needs to complete by end of January
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Gardening expert Monty Don has revealed his biggest January job with 2025 fast approaching. While the weather has been cold, wet and dull for most parts of the UK, there's still lots of jobs to be getting on with in our gardens. At the very least these jobs will ensure our outdoor spaces look in pristine condition when the warmer months arrive.
British horticulturist Monty Don has revealed he will be pruning all of his fruit trees when January arrives. The Gardeners' World star has admitted this is key to a fresh looking garden later in the year, although he has warned against over pruning with gardeners urged to do nothing if in doubt.
Writing on his website, the gardening expert said: "This is always my big January job and if nothing else this is something I like to have finished by the end of the month. Try to understand how something grows before pruning. "Does it flower on new or old wood? Does it grow new shoots in a great post flowering burst or do they steadily emerge over the season? Does a fruit tree need to achieve a certain maturity to create spurs that bear fruit or will they be produced in the first year of growth?.
"Does the plant heal well or is it, like cherries and plums, a bleeder - and if so when does it produce least sap? If in doubt about any of this - don’t cut. Wait. You will never do harm by not pruning and patience in a garden is a great virtue. "If you prune an apple tree hard each winter it will make a mass of new growth but no flowers – and therefore no fruit. This cycle is often perpetuated by even harder pruning the following year – to get rid of all that new, fruitless growth, which, having lots of lovely succulent sap, will attract aphids and fungal disease. So through over-zealous and mistimed pruning people often ruin their fruit trees.
