Even though January is not an ideal month to get out in the garden to work there are many tasks that you can enjoy doing this month.
- This is one of my favorite tasks each year, to order or review online seed catalogs to prepare my seed orders and to see what new varieties are being offered.
- Review your seed inventory to know what you need to order for this year.
- Review your notes from last year’s garden to know what changes you are going to make and what crop rotation you will be making this year.
- This is a great time to grab a cup of coffee or tea and sit back to read new gardening books to expand your knowledge.
- Start your pruning of dormant plants such as grapes, blueberries, apples, and roses.
- Take cuttings of the plants you want to start from the plants you are pruning.
- Clean and sharpen your garden tools to have them ready to use when you start your outdoor gardening tasks.
- This is a great time to dream about the upcoming garden and what you want to do to make it better and more colorful.
- Watch for sales online and at your local garden shops to purchase your fertilizers, potting soil, seed-starting soil, and tools. This is a time when you can catch early sales to fill all of your gardening needs for the upcoming growing season.
- Each month it is good to not only look at this month’s tasks but also peak at next month’s tasks to know what is coming so that you can be prepared.
- Make sure you have seeds for February’s planting like Sweet Peas, Snow, Shucking Peas, and other plants that you can plant soon.
- You might see the first bare-root plants and trees show up at local gardening shops since the end of January and February are the best months to get these planted.
- Remember as you plan out your garden for this year’s planting your yard is like a painting with colors and textures to make it visibly pleasing as well as meeting your needs for feeding you and your family.
- Review how much of each vegetable, herb, and fruit you ate and preserved this past year and what you had an excess of to determine how much of each you need to grow this year.
- Also, review what new varieties you grew that you liked to grow again this year and what you did not like to discontinue growing.
- Evaluate your tools used in the garden to see if there are any that need to be repaired or replaced.
