Monthly Garden Guide – January
Welcome to your Monthly Gardening Guide for January! Below you will find information on what I will be doing, (or trying to do) for the month of January. These are goals, not standards and some months I am on top of it and other months I blow it. But somehow, and thankfully, the garden is forgiving.
Your garden to-do list may look different than mine, and that is okay. Perhaps you will glean something from my list and please, if you have any suggestions, opinions or tips & tricks feel free to contact me! I would love to hear from you. Now, let’s get our hands dirty and get growing!
Main Goal
Prep now, do you planning, lay your foundation for the coming year
Prepare
Whether you’re gearing up to plant a new vegetable garden (or two) or make improvements to the one you already have, might I suggest starting out by getting your garden plan down on paper. That may be a journal, plain piece of paper, graph paper, square garden plan or even online. Remember, some crops need to rotate every year. I like to save my garden plans every year and date them, then I have a good idea of what to rotate where AND what worked where. I usually take notes on the back of my garden plans so you I have records of what worked and what didn’t to help me decide on what to plant for next year.
Starting plants from seed for spring or fall this year? Send off for those catalogs and order early, because the varieties you want will sell out. Check my resources page for a listing of the best Seed Catalogs. If you want to begin with seedlings that are ready to be transplanted, make a shopping list of what you’ll need to buy at the nursery or garden center when the time comes. Newbies should ask for recommendations about which vegetables are easiest to grow or check out the links below for more information; begin with a small assortment of seeds and add to them as you gain confidence and experience.
Here are those links to websites and extensions for North Texas
Plant’em
- Tulips, dutch hyacinths and other spring bulbs very early in the month.
- Cool season annuals: Pansies, pinks, snapdragons, ornamental cabbage and kale.
- Plant fruit and pecan trees for your location. Grapes and blackberries.
- Start preparing your garden soil for spring planting. You can also prepare new soil for flower, rose, or shrub beds. Mix in organic material to give plants a healthy start.
- Control the weeds in your garden while they are young and tender, or before they sprout. Remove weeds before they seed, so you can avoid them in your garden.
- Plant Asparagus, snap peas and onions
- Trees and shrubs.
- Start seeds indoors for future transplants for your garden. Wait until the end of the month or even the first week of two of February.
Prune’em
- Crape Myrtles and summer flowering shrubs and vines. Do not top your crape myrtles.
- Evergreen shrubs to shape them – please no lollipops.
- Shade trees to remove dead or damaged branches.
- Peaches, plums apples to remove vertical shoots.
- Pears, pecans, figs or pomegranates just remove damaged or vertical shoots.
- Remove 80-85% of cane growth and maintain scaffold branches.
Feed’em
- Winter annual plants. Apply diluted water-soluble high nitrogen food every 2-3 weeks.
- Late winter perennial plants. High nitrogen fertilizer.
- Asparagus beds with all nitrogen fertilizer late in the month.
- Any plants that have suffered root loss or damage, apply liquid root stimulator. Repeat monthly for new balled and burlapped or bare-root trees and shrubs.
Look Out For’s & To-do’s
- Cold Weather – keep frost cloth handy
- Weeds – either eat them, make wine, or kill them
- Scale insect – get rid of them
- Sun scald – apply tree wraps
- Mulch your beds
- Clean and repair your garden tools
- Make your plans
- Test your soils
- Did you order your seed catalog and/or seeds?
- Water when necessary (yes, even in winter – it gets dry)
May you find joy & wonder in your garden, and may your hands always be dirty,
Dig in to more Gardening Posts here:
I'm married to an amazing man, we have 4 crazy kids, and 4 crazy cats.Pull up a seat, grab a glass of sweet tea and stay awhile!
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