Essential gardening jobs for each month of the New Year

It’s time to put up your new gardening calendar and give yourself reminders of some of the jobs you’ll need to do through the seasons.

Follow this month-by-month bullet point guide to some of the essential tasks you need to earmark for 2026.

January

Check insulation around outside taps and carry out repair jobs on broken fence panels, greenhouses and sheds.

If it’s been windy but not wet, water plants in containers as anything which is coming to life will need water to survive.

Prune wisteria, when the side shoots are easily visible.

Order seeds from catalogues and online suppliers, and if you have a frost-free greenhouse sow early crops such as lettuce, radishes and early carrots under glass.

February

Prune large flowered (Group 3) clematis, which flower on the current season’s growth in mid to late summer, including the varieties ‘Perle d’Azur’, ‘Étoile Violette’ and ‘Ville de Lyon’.

Cut back deciduous hedging before birds start nesting in it.

Plant summer-flowering bulbs such as lilies either direct into borders, if the ground isn’t frozen or waterlogged, or in pots.

Plant bare-rooted shrubs including roses and bare-rooted raspberry canes if weather permits.

March

Start weeding, hoeing off weed seedlings as they appear and removing pernicious weeds by hand.

Plant out pot-grown trees, shrubs and climbers.

Prune shrub, bush and climbing roses, Buddleia davidii, dogwoods with coloured winter stems and willows.

Mulch the soil with a generous layer of organic matter up to 5cm deep to enrich the ground and suppress weeds.

Lay new turf while the soil is still quite moist but is warming up.

April

Watch out for slugs, which will decimate young emerging plants. Set beer traps, or place eggshells around vulnerable leaves, or simply pick the slugs off after rainfall. Alternatively try a biological control, a nematode that attacks them which can be watered on to the soil.

Deadhead daffodils and other spring-flowering bulbs before the seedheads start to form, which ensures the bulb’s energy is focused on next year’s flowers.

Continue to sow vegetable seeds such as broad beans, peas and lettuce direct into prepared soil.

Clean out overcrowded ponds, dividing large clumps of waterlilies.

May

Plant up summer bedding in borders and containers and hanging baskets when all danger of frost has passed (which could be next month in cooler regions) and keep them well watered.

Prune early-flowering shrubs such as forsythia and Japanese quince (Chaenomeles), to encourage flowering next year.

Keep mowing and feeding your lawn once the grass is growing well and lower the mower blades slightly as the season progresses, but avoid ‘scalping’ the lawn.

Sow indoor seeds of French beans, courgettes, runner beans and sweetcorn into cells or small pots. Place them on a sunny windowsill to encourage them to germinate and they will be ready to plant out in early June.

Place straw underneath strawberry plants which helps stop the fruitlets getting wet from the ground or attacked by slugs.

June

Plant out tomatoes in the garden, watering them in well – and start feeding them regularly.

Fill gaps in borders with summer bedding or ornamental vegetables such as Swiss chard.

Remove dead or damaged growth from deutzia, philadelphus and weigela which have finished flowering, cutting to a stem joint or leaf.

Thin out fruit on established apples, pears and plum trees, which will prevent the weight of the fruitlets snapping the branches and will encourage the remaining fruits to grow larger.

Dig up spent tulip and hyacinth bulbs and store them away in a cool, dark shed until they are ready for planting again in autumn.

Regularly water and feed containers and hanging baskets.

Mow the lawn regularly.

July

Cut lavender and statice for drying.

Make provision If you are going away on your summer holiday – ask family, friends and neighbours to water the garden for you. Place all pots together in a shady spot, deadhead everything, water well and hope for the best.

Top up water for wildlife, filling bird baths and other containers to allow them to drink during dry spells.

Prune roses which only produce a single flush of flowers each year when they have finished blooming.

Propagate some of your favourite shrubs using semi-ripe cuttings. Suitable candidates include ceanothus, lavender, skimmia, escallonia and photinia.

Keep tomatoes, aubergines and peppers well watered and fed with a liquid high-potash fertiliser.

August

Collect seeds from plants which you want to propagate, including sweet peas, nigella, poppies and nasturtiums.

Plant autumn-flowering bulbs including autumn crocuses, sternbergias and colchicums.

If you return from holiday to a straggly heap of dried-out container bedding plants which you can’t save, ditch them and concentrate on autumn and winter planting displays.

Take cuttings from pelargoniums, fuchsias and other tender perennials.

Collect diseased fallen leaves from beneath roses as debris from any which have blackspot, mildew or rust could give you problems next year if you don’t remove them.

Remove some leaves from tomato plants to allow the sunshine through to ripen the fruit.

Top up water levels in ponds.

September

Plant spring bulbs.

Lift and divide clumps of overcrowded perennials which have finished flowering and replant them, to give you smaller but more vigorous new plants.

Thin aquatic plants and cover your pond with netting to stop leaves falling in.

Create a new compost heap. Clearing the garden in autumn will give you plenty of old plant material to start you off.

Give the lawn a boost by raking out moss and weeds and aerating it.

Keep harvesting crops including courgettes, green beans, tomatoes, sweetcorn, cabbages, autumn cauliflower and onions, and work out how you’re going to preserve your gluts, whether it’s freezing, pickling or making passata.

October

Rake up autumn leaves and create leaf mould, a good soil texture improver or can be used as a mulch. Place them in refuse bags with holes in them for ventilation and leave them out of the way for a year, by which time they will have turned into a black, crumbly mass.

Pot a clump of mint or parsley to bring indoors as a windowsill herb.

Dry attractive seed heads such as eryngiums and teasel to use in indoor dried decorations.

Lift and store summer bulbs including cannas and gladioli.

Reseed any bare patches which have developed on your lawn.

November

Tidy up – but not too much. Leave some old stems and leaves to provide winter protection for insects and seedheads for the birds.

Plant tulip bulbs. November is the best month for them, as the cooler soil helps prevent the fungal disease tulip fire.

Give newly planted shrubs and trees some protection from the elements, even if it’s just a layer of horticultural fleece.

Wrap containers in hessian, fleece or other insulating material to stop the plants in them from freezing.

Lift dahlias and store them in a cool, dark, dry place.

Check stored fruit and veg for signs of disease.

December

Plant up some containers for winter colour, featuring plants such as skimmia, helleborus, winter-flowering heathers and Cyclamen coum.

Cut foliage, berries and winter flowers to create your own Christmas wreath.

Harvest Brussels sprouts, parsnips and leeks for Christmas dinner.