January – the Gardening Delight of a New Year!
Harvest, Replant, Maintenance, Spring Preps, SEEDS!
Keep harvesting! Plant consideringly. That means, summer planting starts in March. January, February are generally cold, so slow growth though day length is getting longer. Keep in mind what space you want available in March for the March starts. If you are a winter plant lover gardener, one way to do this is to plant another round of your favorite winter plants, then in March designate a ‘nursery’ area, and start your summer seeds there. Transplant the babies to their permanent locations as the spaces become available. That in mind, plant more broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, chard, kale, kohlrabi, potatoes. Plant an understory of all year favorites – beets, carrots, parsley, radish, and turnips, on the sunny sides of taller plants. And LETTUCES! They love January!
January IS bareroot month! Start bareroot artichokes, short day globe onions, strawberries, asparagus, horseradish (Be warned! Invasive). Depending on the weather, strawberry flowers may appear shortly after planting. Remove them so more energy goes into root development. Seascape, developed by UC Davis, is an everbearer strawberry that produces well in our moderate coastal climate. Sequoia is an large berried everbearer; Chandler is a June bearer. For those of you at home, plant bareroot cane berries, blueberries, roses, deciduous fruit trees! Visit Bay Laurel Nursery in Atascadero!
Clear overwintering pest habitat, debris; weed. Turn top soil to aerate and let the bad fungi die, pray for the good ones. Sidedress your producing plants lightly – add some fish emulsion with kelp. Sprinkle and lightly dig in cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal or fish meal. Keep a weather watch; keep those old sheets and coverings about in case of hard freezes. Farmers’ Almanac on Frost Weather.com Frost Map Make this one your home page during cold winter months. No mulch this time of year; it keeps the soil cold. Rain Tips!
Make compost, start preparing your soil for spring planting. Make raised beds. Plan your spring garden; get seeds, wait until March to start planting your summer veggies. Wait for it. Plants planted out of season struggle with weather, day length, temps, and are susceptible to pests and diseases they aren’t naturally able to fend off. Now, if you have a greenhouse….
No greenhouse? Start Seeds Indoors – we are now the prerequisite six to eight weeks away from March! Start tomatoes, marigolds, peppers, cosmos, zucchini, impatiens, salvia, basil, and others. Especially start peppers! They take longer than other veggies. Otherwise, wait until all chance of freezing temperatures have passed and buy transplants at your favorite nursery. I’ve seen zucchini started in the ground in January thrive. If it doesn’t come up, no problem! Put some more seeds in soon again! Keep planting. I haven’t seen it work with tomatoes, but Marshall Chrostowski of Pacifica Institute’s Garden starts his toms in January for late March picking! He uses heat transmitting black row covers on the ground, and floating row covers above. That’s clear plastic with holes over hoops. They make the soil 15 degrees warmer, with 15-20% warmer air! You can buy floating row covers at your nursery. Give it a try! Eating garden fresh organic tomatoes late March?! Yum! Row covers will speed up your notorious slow-grower peppers too! Not only do floating row covers warm things up, but they keep flying pests away from your plants! Check out Digital Seed’s Planting Schedule!
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