What to do in your garden in January

Hi darling, I’m Kendall, a horticultural therapist. Here on my Substack, I share tips on how to use your garden to grow your personal power in a world that tries to keep women stuck, exhausted & burnt out. Come grab your trowel and join the rebellion, we’ve got a patriarchy to dismantle.

www.adventureswithflowers.com

Welcome to the Seed, the place where we learn to resource ourselves in the garden so that we can unlock more joy in our lives.

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Ermmmm, what date is it?! I had every intention of sending this email in the first week of January- ha ha. That is my plan for the remaining months of the year. But somehow it seemed important to start the year slowly and with intention. I’ve mused a lot about what this newsletter ‘should’ be, but I felt it was important to put the ‘shoulds’ down for a hot minute and actually tap in to what I wanted it to be.

I know myself pretty well and in the last couple of years (since my ADHD diagnosis) by allowing the true me to show herself proudly, i’m learning to quieten the noise and tap into what is good for me AND good for my business.

Here are some of the things that came up as I used the first couple of weeks of Jan to think about what I wanted my 2025 to have more of and what I wanted less of.

More:

• Adventures. (More on this at the bottom of this email).

• Sharing what’s going on in my head with loved ones.

• Writing (oh hi 👋🏼).

• Getting in people’s gardens. More on this here.

• Money in my bank account.

Less:

• Forensic work- yep I dove back in when my littlest was 5 months old because, how the fuck are you supposed to survive on £500 maternity pay a month. But 2025 is the year I say sayonara for good.

• Shitty friends who put you down to make themselves feel better.

• Obsessing over social media.

• Scrolling to numb my feelings.

• Feeling not good enough.

I’d love you to share yours in the comments below.

Ok. So gardening in January. Yes it’s a thing and yes of course i’m going to show you how.

It’s really bloody cold outside and when I suggest doing some gardening right now, most people look at me like i’ve got 3 heads.

But there are some key things you can be doing in your garden in January that will mean you feel less overwhelmed come Spring.

Mindful Gardening activities

These activities are designed to be done throughout January to ease you in to the gardening year slowly. They are exclusively for paid subscribers so come and join us for £50 for the entire year and never have to ask yourself ‘what should I be doing in the garden this week?’ again.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

In case your inbox is as much of a bin fire as mine….I really recommend creating a folder called The Seed and popping this email in there so you can always find it throughout the month and easily access your mindful gardening activities.

Do this one thing in January to keep your plants healthy and improve your wellbeing and mood

Our January focus is PRUNING!

A word that strikes the fear into even the boldest woman’s heart. If I had a £ for every client who’s said to me ‘but what if I kill it’, i’d be a very rich woman.

I’m going to share with you the phrase I share with every client.

‘A plant wants to live’.

Sure there are things you can do so that not only does the plant live, it actually thrives, giving you loads of beautiful brightly coloured flowers all through the year. Things I share in this masterclass.

But it’s actually quite hard to prune a plant to death.

If you’re internally cringing and thinking ‘we’ll i’ve managed it’. Then I really, really encourage you to purchase this masterclass in which i’ll show you exactly how to prune your plants.

This time of year can be so miserable, we get up in the dark and for many of us its dark when we get home too. We know that time outside is so important for our mental health yes, but also so we can feel a bit happier too. More happiness is firmly at the top of my list of ‘wants’ for 2025.

There’s a reason those SAD lamps sell like hotcakes at this time of year. How about instead of sitting inside staring at an artificial light. You pull on your warm coat, grab your secateurs and come and prune your plants with me.

And if you’re done with generic advice, fed up with scrolling Youtube for ‘How to’ videos that all seem to give conflicting advice and you just want someone in your garden showing you how its done. Then book in for some Seasonal Sessions. Right now you can get 4 for the price of 3 including a care plan for the ENTIRE year.

What’s coming up in the Seed in 2025

More adventures! I realised that i’m never happier when i’m discovering new places. They re-energise me like nothing else.

As much as i’d love to be jetting off to new climes every month with kids and life yanno, it’s just not possible.

So instead i’m going to be visiting one garden a month, taking a shit load of pictures and then sharing with you the things I loved, the things I didn’t and how you can recreate a little slice of the garden outside your back door.

There’s a reason I called my business Adventures with Flowers and after nearly 6 years I think I finally understand it and what i’ve been called to do.

Any guesses what my first garden visit might be?

I’ll give you some clues:

• Close to where I live (Reading)

• Cake

• Carpets

Put your guesses below!