Gardening in January?

By Joel Gillespie
January 10, 2014

Hi Midlands Neighbors,
 
I know that January doesn’t seem like such a great time to be out in the garden. But there really are a lot of things that can be done in January that will positively impact the upcoming gardening season as well as make your garden more attractive in the meantime.

Here’s an old true story (nod to the intro to I Must Have Did Somebody Wrong). I was at a customer’s house last March, and noticed that everything looked so nice. I was wondering, hmm, who has been here working? Then I realized that I had been, back in early January. That’s what January gardening can do for the spring garden!
 
As for me, I just like being outside in South Carolina in the winter – gardening or walking or hiking, it doesn’t really matter. The air is so clear this time of year, and the sky is so blue, and the pine trees so, well, green! Any chance I get to look up at a clear Carolina blue sky through pine trees is a treat for me. And did I mention no mosquitoes, generally low humidity, and no copperheads or wasps!

Some things just stand out better in winter, like tree bark, white sycamore bark being the best example. And I don’t know why but I like seeing those dangling sycamore and sweet gum balls hanging on, or last spring’s tulip poplar flower brackets pointing skyward high in the tree. Birds are easier to see in winter, especially hawks! Sometimes it’s the crows yacking at them that alerts me to look up, but other times it’s the Hawks themselves screeching.

Speaking of birds of prey, I recently had the profound privilege of watching and listening to two barred owls hooting and gurgling and cooing in a willow oak right across the street from my place in Rose Hill. After watching and listening for some time I took off on a walk and they seemed to follow, landing in two trees just across each other down the way a bit. It was pretty cool stuff.
 
Days getting longer always puts a little skip in my step. It is encouraging at many levels, and knowing that longer day length and shorter night length triggers various hormonal changes in plants makes it more fun to watch the season unfold.
 
But what I think I like the most about winter outside are the buds, as in tree buds and plant buds. Inside are the tiny leaves and/or flowers, either well-formed in miniature, or at least already differentiated as cells ready to take on full form. What energy the tree didn’t put into its seeds, or store in its roots, last summer and fall it has packed into these buds. Indeed, as last summer wound down, and the buds started to form which would lie dormant over the winter, the tree knew to transfer important energy resources from the leaves to the buds. These buds are rich in energy which is why deer and other animals like to eat them. The softer tissues of the buds are protected from the cold by tough bud scales. These scales leave scars when they fall off, scars which tell stories about how the twig has grown over the last few years.
 
OK, enough of that. Here are some good things to do in your garden in January…
 
Apply mulch – Mulch regulates soil temperature and moisture and does a great job suppressing weed growth. If you haven’t already kicked your leaves to the curb, leaves are about perfect as a mulch!
 
Remove unwanted vines and trees. I am on a life mission to remove English Ivy from the western hemisphere. English Ivy competes with your shrubs for water and food. It is easier to remove in the winter and doing so makes way for proper bed maintenance in the spring. It is terrible invasive in our forests. It is pretty easy to pull out of the ground and cut off trees.

Although Wisteria is not an evergreen, it does not hide itself very well. It is actually easier to track down and get rid of its underground runners (and root hubs) in the winter when access in and out of beds is easier. Green Smilax shoots are easier to see in the winter, and the tubers can be removed just as well in January as in July. Japanese honeysuckle is evergreen around here and its bark also gives it away. It can be yanked quite easily right out of the ground. Wild grape vines have very distinctive bark as well. These vines and others are so aggressive that they swarm your other plants in early spring faster than you can shake a stick. You may as well get rid of them now. Winter is also a good time to remove some of the more common pesky large shrubs and trees such as cherry laurel, ligustrum, hackberry, and so forth. Even oak saplings are easy to see and remove, as they often keep some of their leaves in the winter.
 
Transplant – January is a very good time to transplant shrubs.
 
Plant – January is a great time to plant shrubs and trees. Bare root roses can be planted toward the end of the month, and January is a good time to prepare beds for planting roses.
 
Clean up – One good thing about winter is that it is easier to see and remove those piles of bricks and concrete and rocks in the back of a flower bed, or old rotted landscaping timbers, or planting pots hiding here and there. May as well get rid of that stuff while you’re noticing it. It is a good time to remove dead wood from azaleas, clean out the crowns of azalea plants, or rake old leaves or old flower petals out from under camellias.
 
Prune, Clip, and Trim – Obviously January is not the time to prune plants grown for their flowers and which set their buds on the prior season’s growth (best to wait until after they bloom). But it can be a good time to neaten up ungainly shrubs, to remove dead wood, or to prune tree limbs hanging over your shrubs or crossing/rubbing against each other. Some shrubs like Camellia sasanqua that bloom in the fall can be pruned safely in January if overgrown and unsigntly. Winter can also be a good time for neatening up non flowering hedges. Why be annoyed all winter by ungainly shrubs? January is a good time to get rid of the dying stalks and leaves of last year’s daylilies, canna lilies, and ginger lilies falling all over each other (and other plants), remove old lantana stems, and so forth. It is a decent time to cut back ungainly knock out roses from the past season.
 
Prepare Soil – January is a good time to start to get the ground ready for a spring planting of vegetables. Bacteria and worms don’t stop working in our mild winters when the soil rarely freezes, and it is an active time for worms and bacteria to work on decomposing leaves and enriching soil. Turning the soil in a planting bed, especially if it has some leaves or leaf litter covering it, can be a good way to prep the soil for an early spring planting.
 
Water – Remember to water in winter. Not only do plants still need water to live, but keeping the soil watered helps ameliorate the impact of a cold snap, just as putting water on peach buds during a hard freeze can help save the buds! Just a good deep watering every week or so if it does not rain is perfect.
 
Bulbs – Yes, it is ideal to plant bulbs in the fall, but I had a chance to plant several hundred daffodils and tulips last January and though they bloomed later than otherwise that first season, bloom they did, and it was fantastic.
 
Fertilize – Pansies and other winter blooming annuals need to be fertilized to keep up a nice show of blooms. Do NOT fertilize dormant creeping grasses. You should not fertilize centipede, St. Augustine or zoysia lawns until late April no matter what the advertisements from Lowe’s and Home Depot say.
 
Plan – January is a great time to start thinking about and planning for the spring. Since we begin to get a lot of new growing activity by late February, spring can sort of sneak up on us here in Columbia and by the time we’re ready for it we may have missed a window of opportunity. Best to get out the garden books and catalogs and start planning now, rather than then.
 
Thanks, and happy gardening!

Joel Gillespie
Gardening and Such
[email protected]
joelgillespie.com