Here are a few suggestions for
January gardening:
Get rid of last
year's garden catalogs - recycle them. Those things can really turn into
dust collectors. While you're at it, you might want to get rid of some of the old
garden related magazines you've been saving. You know you saved them for a
reason, but after a couple years pass, it's hard to remember why.
Order
seeds and plants from the new crop of catalogs if you didn't do so in December. If
you have a lot of older seeds left over from previous years that you know you're
not going to use in your gardening endeavors then it might be time to get
rid of them, too. Trade seeds with a fellow gardener from a local
garden club or
organization or join one of the gardening bulletin boards on the Web. The
Arizona group on the
Garden
Web seems to be fairly active exchanging lots of questions and answers. The
group also plan Phoenix and Tucson gardener
get-togethers where seeds and plants can be shared.
Prune those
rose bushes late in the month. Need help? Some of the local nurseries put
on rose pruning demonstrations or you might want to join and mingle with other rose aficionados
at the Rose Society of Tucson.
Take a good
look at your leafless trees for broken branches to prune. Thin some of the
overgrown trees to prevent future (possibly summer monsoon) storm damage
or prevent branches from crossing one another. Your pruning plans should
be to
remove damaged limbs, avoid future storm damage by thinning or remove
branches to help shape the tree. Watch
for those branches that strike the house, or passing pedestrian when the wind blows. You might
save yourself some future roofing expense if you prune early.
For the
gardener with a vegetable plot there's still time for lettuce, radishes, Swiss chard,
beets, spinach, carrots and onions. You may have a few root
bound transplants you
saved from your fall garden. I always have several six packs of lettuce
still growing from seed started the previous fall. When I pull up a
lettuce head to eat, I replace it with a new one from
one of the six packs. Plant growth in the vegetable garden will pick up as
the weather warms.
Check the
nurseries for bedding plants like petunia, pansies, violas, calendulas,
sweet alyssum, snap dragons and stocks. Get them planted into pots and
beds for a show of spring color.
Bare-root trees
arrive in the nurseries and garden centers.
Maybe you'll want
to add a fig, plum, peach or apricot to the garden. Keep in mind
you'll have to fight the birds for the fruit and you'll have to
learn how to prune the trees for best fruit production. Fruit trees and grape vines are not for the
inactive gardener. The
bare-root trees, roses, asparagus, and strawberries are easy to
handle.
If you haven't started a compost bin then maybe it's
time. Start a pile on the ground - not pretty - but it works. Kitchen scraps
and yard waste will get you started. Pay a visit
to the Tucson Botanical Gardens to see a variety of composting methods.
Water when
necessary. If it hasn't rained since late November or early
December then you better think about
watering some of your landscape plants. Many may be dormant, but they're not dead
and water stressed plants suffer more from freezing temperatures than
those with adequate moisture.
Take a walk
through your garden on a warm January Saturday afternoon and carry a pad of paper
and pencil or pen. Maybe you'll notice a little plant maintenance that needs to be
done sometime in the future. Take notes while you stroll through the garden. Maybe you'll think
of a plant you'll want to add to a garden's bare spot when spring arrives. Maybe
you want something that flowers and you don't know what plant, but you know the
color of the flower and the size of the plant you want.
If you've taken notes, then you
can ask
your favorite nursery personnel the right questions the next time you purchase plants.
Watch for
insects on your vegetable crops and bedding plants.
Cabbage loopers and aphids really enjoy the quiet life under floating row
covers where they are protected from birds and other insects. Green looper
and other caterpillar damage is pretty obvious - chewed leaves
- as are the
little droppings left behind. The aphids you'll have to look for
especially under the leaves of
lettuce. Bt, bacillus thuringiensis works great on the
caterpillars and you can try washing the aphids off the lettuce with a
blast of water. The blasting off with water I've found is a very temporary
fix.
Watch TV, read the newspaper or listen
to the radio
for freeze warnings. If you grow frost sensitive plants you may have to
cover them, move them to a protective area, or add some makeshift heating
to get them through a few cold nights. Be ready and don't be lazy or you
may find yourself having to buy replacement plants come spring.
If you have a
greenhouse and have moved many of your plants inside the protective structure to
get them through the winter make sure you watch for insects. I know I get a bit careless and sometimes forget the
plants need watering and insect control.
Make sure the structure is also
well ventilated on those sunny days so the greenhouse doesn't turn into an
oven that bakes the plants.
Enjoy your
garden. Find a sunny spot and a comfortable chair. Then soak up some of that
Tucson winter sunshine -- you lucky devil.
