January Garden Calendar

By Sharon Morrisey, Consumer Horticulture Agent
Milwaukee County University of Wisconsin-Extension

As long as there is a good covering of snow the winter weather can be as frightful as it wants. The white stuff is to winter what woodchips are to summer. Snow is a mulch that moderates soil temperatures as they fluctuate or become extreme throughout the winter. This protects the roots and crowns of roses, ornamental grasses and perennial flowers. Even strawberries might survive in the southernmost parts of the state just covered by a good blanket of snow. Sometimes, spring flowering shrubs such as forsythia only have flowers on the lowest branches that were covered with snow.

Actual gardening in January is limited to the windowsill variety. Low light levels, warm dry air and cool drafty windows all make this a challenge. Most importantly, avoid overwatering.  Little water is being used therefore little is needed.

It really is a great time to start dreaming of next summer’s plantings.  Review your journal, update your plant database and decide what to do differently this year.  Believe it or not, it is not too early to order seeds.

UW-Extension resources for gardeners include our Horticulture Team website, University Publications and InfoSource.  The Hort Team website with printable factsheets and articles by UW-Extension specialists is at  http://hort.uwex.edu.  University publications can be downloaded and printed or ordered from http://learningstore.uwex.edu.

InfoSource is an on-line library of over 600 messages to access via your computer.  Text versions may be printed from the website http://infosource.uwex.edu. 

First Week

Reuse your Christmas tree in your own yard to provide protective cover for our feathered friends.  Place it near an existing feeder or make the tree itself a naturalistic feeding station.

Another option is to cut off the limbs and use them to cover planting beds where perennial flowers, strawberries, parsley, carrots, etc. are trying to survive the winter. 

They also give added protection to screen sun and wind from broadleaf evergreens like boxwood, hollies, and rhododendrons. 

Next spring when these limbs have lost their needles, they can be used to stake peas and vining vegetables or perennials that need a little extra support like delphiniums and peonies.

The Christmas tree trunk striped of its limbs can be used as a naturalistic bed edging or lay it at the back of a mulched perimeter planting bed allowing it to decompose naturally.

Bulbs in cold storage for forcing can be brought out now if they have had their proper chilling period.  Small bulbs like crocus and hyacinth need 8 weeks and larger ones like tulip and daffodil need 12 – 14.  If potted before storing, simply move them into a warmer and lighter area and begin watering. If stored cold but unpotted, plant them in a well-drained medium that will also hold plenty of moisture. 

Care of poinsettia, amaryllis and Christmas cactus after flowering calls for bright light, cooler temperatures and reduced watering.  Start fertilizing now with a dilute, balanced fertilizer. 

Trees and shrubs may need winter protection from damage by rodents, rabbits, and deer.  Install small mesh hardware cloth, chicken wire or plastic trunk guards. Apply repellents to susceptible plants like young fruit trees and burning bush.  Be certain to reapply repellents often since they wear off over time.

Second Week

Brush off ice and snow from tree and shrub limbs.  Use an upward sweeping motion to prevent breakage.  Tie together tall, multiple stemmed evergreens like arborvitae with wire covered with hose segments or old pantyhose.  Sometimes bent branches can have hairline cracks that are invisible once the branch has snapped back into place. Then in June when the branch inexplicably wilts, the correlation to this winter damage is seldom made.

Use tree wrap on trunks of newly planted trees as well as those species with thin bark like linden, ash, mountain ash, and maple.  This helps prevent frost cracking of the sun warmed bark (generally on the southwest side of the tree) when it freezes again rapidly after the sun sets on a winter day.  Always wrap from the ground up so the overlap sheds water rather than collects it.  Remove wrapping in spring.

Third Week

Indoor foliage plants really benefit from an occasional cleaning.  Dust settles on leaves and clogs “pores”, hindering light penetration as well as gas and moisture exchange.  Give them a shower to wash the leaves.  Water allowed to run through the soil helps leach out minerals and salts.

Wait until really vigorous growth begins again in the spring to transplant potbound houseplants.  Fertilize sparingly now and also water so that the water runs through the soil and out of the drainage holes.  Do not allow plants to reabsorb this water since it contains salts and minerals that can be toxic when they are concentrated in the soil.

Fourth Week

Now is a great time to start garden carpentry projects.  Plans for cold frames, trellises, benches, etc. can be found in the many gardening books available at your public library.  Build a lighting rig for starting vegetable seeds indoors.  Use one cool white and one warm white fluorescent bulb in a fixture which can be kept 4 – 6″ above the plants, adjusting it as they grow.

Start to grow seedlings inside now for varieties that are slow to germinate and require long growth periods to be ready for the garden in late May.  These include impatiens, petunia, and begonia.  Be forewarned, however, that supplemental lighting is almost an absolute to successfully grow these seedlings indoors for such a long time.  Use specially designed heat mats to provide bottom heat to produce really strong seedlings.

If you are getting antsy inside, do a tool inventory and cleaning.  Hoes, shovels, and spades all need to be sharp to perform at their peak.  Soak and scrub to remove dirt.  Then coat with light oil to protect metal surfaces.  Sand handles and apply boiled linseed oil.  Use a splotch of brightly colored enamel spray paint to personalize them and make them easier to locate when left lying among the foliage.  Padded grips can be added to cushion your hands.