January is a great time to be gardening. The weather is warm and the days are long, making it ideal for plant growth. With January being one of the main harvesting times, many delicious summer crops will be ready to harvest. It’s also the perfect time to plant more to ensure a continued supply. If you go away on holiday, arrange for someone to water your plants while you are away.
GARDEN HIGHLIGHTS
LILIES, BORDER PERENNIALS, FUCHSIAS, SOLANUM JASMINOIDES
ORNAMENTAL GARDEN
Plant
Sow in containers cyclamen and polyanthus and in open ground larkspur, nemesia and scabious. Also, if not done already sow direct alyssum, calendula, cornflower, pansy, poppy, stock, sweetpea and wallflower, and begin planting any spring bulbs except tulips. Prepare bulb beds with compost and high-phosphate fertiliser.
Fertilise
Give two fortnightly doses of liquid fertiliser to dahlias and chrysanthemums.
Prune
Remove any dead wood and do the essential trimming on ornamental trees. On blossom trees and silver birches (susceptible to Silver Leaf disease) dress cus with fungicidal pruning paste.
Watch for
Aphids, thrips, cherry/plum/pear slug, caterpillars (including loopers and porina), black spot, rust and powdery mildew.
EDIBLE GARDEN
Plant
Beans (dwarf), beets (red and silver), carrots (maincrop and slow-bolting), peas (early);(whole month) broccoli (late), cabbage (winter hybrids, savoy), cauliflower (5-month), celery, spring onions, and radishes.
Prune
Cut down raspberry canes that have fruited. After crop the has been picked do any essential pruning on stone fruit, sealing cuts with pruning paste.
Fertilise
Use compost generously on new plantings, adding dolomite for the cabbage tribe. With plenty of compost and mulch, veges usually grow rigorously, but if any look unthrifty apply a liquid feed every week until growth is satisfactory.
Watch for
Aphids, caterpillars, green vegetable bugs, pear/plum/cherry slugs, black spots, blight, brown rot, powdery mildew and rust.
Things to do
Keep all beds mulched and water thoroughly when the soil under mulch begins to feel dry. Control weeds as in ornamental beds. Protect new plantings from the hot sun with shade cloth or row covers. Make sure citrus and dwarf pipfrupip fruits have adequate moisture to carry their crops. Pick stone fruits and the earliest apples as they ripen, some under-ripe Gravensteins may be picked for cooking. Continue to spray late apples for codling moth.
GARDEN MAINTENANCE
Watering
Water applied slowly to plant roots is more effective than overhead spraying. Continue to conserve supplies by deep mulching beds and specimen shrubs. Water deeply about once a week, but if woody plants wilt, give water at once. In drought areas concentrate especially on new plantings.
Rose Care
See that bushes are never short of water. Watch for pests and diseases and treat them appropriately.
Lawn Care
If dry weather persists encourage the lawn to become dormant. Do not over-water and cut only very lightly, letting clippings lie. If water is available, use seldom and generously, but do not saturate.
Things to do
Prolong flowering of ornamentals by regular deadheading and trimming. Stake all plants before they flop. Smother small weeds with a handful of hay or grass clippings, remove large weeds to compost heap before they can seed. Trim edges.
Need assistance
Please get in touch with the team at Lawn King.
