Here’s to a new year in the garden. I’m already starting to make journal entries for January.
So far, it’s not much to shout about in the weather department. We’ve had dry Decembers before, but if January turns out to be the start of six weeks of Caribbean-like weather like last year, we’ll never catch up.
The weather affects how things grow as much as the soil that plants grow in. Remember the cool spring and summer we had while you waited for your tomatoes to ripen? I was just looking at the weather forecasts for 2011 that the Farmer’s Almanac predicted. Last May, when I first wrote about them, they were way off for the first half of the year, and at best they were hit and miss for the latter half. October did bring rain for us, as predicted, but the almanac folks hedged their bets for November, calling for “bands of showers” off and on during the month.
December for us brought lots of frost and a heavy windstorm. Although the frost was predicted by the almanac, I didn’t see any “light to moderate rainfall” in December. I put my trust in the satellite map, Internet weather sites and my own common sense to judge when to start planting, pruning and transplanting for the season.
This year, I’m going to start off right by noting on my calendar at the beginning of each month just what I need to do to ensure a happy, healthy garden. Here are the tasks to do in the garden in January.
January tasks
– Plan for spring. The season for bareroot fruits, nuts, berries and ornamentals runs through the end of February. Don’t miss this inexpensive way to add to your edible garden or your landscape.
– Cut back hydrangeas, if you haven’t already done so. Apply soil sulfur, aluminum sulfate or another acidifier if you want to encourage blue flowers. You must do this before the plants set flower buds, or it won’t help.
– Prune fruit, nut and shade trees and spray with horticultural oil, lime sulfur, liquid sulfur or copper dormant spray. You should get one more spraying in about Valentine’s Day. That is actually the most important one, as it’s just before bud break. Don’t use lime sulfur on apricots, though.
– Cut back summer-flowering deciduous shrubs and vines. Don’t prune spring-flowering varieties — lilacs, flowering cherry, plum and crabapple trees, rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, weigelas and spireas — until after flowering, but you can cut some during flowering for bouquets.
– Control overgrown honeysuckles, potato vines, morning glories, trumpet creepers and pink jasmines by thinning now or even cutting them back low to the ground if they are a big, tangled mess.
– Prune roses toward the end of the month. I’ll tell you how to do this later, but it’s not as hard as it sounds.
– Bait for slugs and snails.
Tasks for later
There are several things you don’t need to do yet, thanks to the frosty weather.
– Don’t cut back grasses yet, if you get frost in the area where they grow.
– Wait to prune back perennials that might have their new foliage damaged in a late frost
– Wait until February to prune frost-damaged shrubs, if you can tell how far down the dieback goes; otherwise, wait until growth starts in the spring.
– Wait to prune fuchsias and other perennials until February.
– Don’t fertilize houseplants until March, and don’t overwater them. Because they are resting at this time of year, they use little water. Be sure they are dry before watering.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to email me. I’d love to hear from you.
– Jan Nelson, a landscape designer and California certified nursery professional, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. E-mail her at
ja******@ao*.com
, or visit www.jannelsonlandscapedesign.com to view past columns and pictures.
