Top 6 Must-Do’s for January 2022!

gillnurseryTimely Tips23 Comments

Welcome to 2022! January is the planning month for South Texas gardeners. Time to think about what/where/when/how, and most importantly, why to plant! Here are our top January to-do’s to set you up for a fun and successful Spring.

Check out our January Garden Guide for more tips and remember that trees, shrubs, and perennials can be planted 12 months out of the year! The only difference is the amount of water they need depending on temperatures and wind!


1. Set Your Gardening Intention

What are your reasons for gardening this year? Could be for stress relief, exercise, improving the environment, growing and cooking delicious food, attracting birds, or just enjoying being outside. Think about why you want to garden first, then use the month to plan your new garden spaces, clean up beds, and prepare your planting areas.


2. Keep Planting – But Watch The Weather

Our South Texas Spring is only about 45 days away! Pleasant weather brings the itch to start planting everything, but January weather is quite unpredictable, and temps can drop suddenly. January is a perfect time to plant trees & shrubs, greens & herbs, and cool weather flowers, just hold off on the tender tropicals. 


3. Fertilize Your Citrus Trees

Use organic Citrus Tone by Espoma once you’ve finished your harvest. This helps your citrus get ready to bloom this Spring and produce a bumper crop next Fall-Winter. Reapply in June. You can feed in between with organic Hasta Gro.


4. Plant Climbing Roses

Our favorite climbing rose, the Peggy Martin variety, are blooming like crazy right now. Climbing roses benefit from being planted now and should not be cut back until after they have totally gone out of bloom. Other shrub roses should be cut back late January/early Feb to promote new growth and more Spring blooms. 


5. Houseplants – Find a Good Spot

The key to vibrant and healthy houseplants is often just finding the right spot. A good starting point is to place near windows that get good indirect light for at least some portion of the day. Be sure to keep houseplants away from A/C and heat vents, which will dry them out. This Pilea is happy on a high shelf about 5 feet from a Western-facing window that gets indirect/dappled light through the trees outside.


6. Lawn Care

This Winter we’ve been diagnosing and treating fungal issues in lawns including the dreaded Take-All Root Rot. Check out our tips for prevention which include applying Peat Moss and making sure that you are not overwatering. For weeds, Bonide Weed & Crabgrass Preventer will help stop weed seeds from sprouting. Weed Beater Complete kills existing weeds and helps stop new weeds from sprouting.

23 Comments on “Top 6 Must-Do’s for January 2022!”

    1. But then again, maybe you meant what can I use for weeds. If you have dogs spending a substantial amount of time in that yard then I just would not use any weed killers, only organic fertilizers, and then mow very regularly for your form of weed control

  1. If you have full sun, Bermudagrass varieties such as Celebration Have greater resistance to traffic than more commonly used Saint Augustine. If the lawn is too shady for Bermuda then I have put down pavers for the dog area. Then another solution is to segregate the yard with a small area surrounding the patio with a planting and short picket fence and then leave the rest of the yard for the dogs to play and destroy at their will

  2. Thank you for all of the gardening tips. Much appreciated.
    I have a huge problem with stinging nettle all over my yard. My mother referred to it as Ortegia in Spanish. How can I get rid of this painful weed? I know that it is a good medicinal weed but that doesn’t help me when my grandchildren run through it.

    1. Good medicinal and also edible, I actually make Enchiladas Ortigas, with chicken, cojita cheese, and stinging nettle. The cooking takes away any sting. But while hunting this weekend, I touched enough nettle that I completely understand your need to get rid of it. If you come into our store and ask for a broadleaf weed killer, that will remove the nettle. It takes about 10 days to work, so don’t expect it to be dead the following day. If not all dead in 2 weeks, you can make another application.

    1. You would likely be fine to prune now, but safest is end of January. Remember, lower branches catch sunlight and help produce fruit, so do not think you are helping the tree by trimming them. You do this if you must, for your own convenience.

  3. When is the best time to fertilize my lawn ? I was thinking doing this month with Medina fertilizer. Let me know please. Also I used an aireador on my lawn was that a good idea.

    1. Too early to fertilize the lawn in mid January. You will get the greatest benefit from fertilizing once the lawn has broken dormancy and has resumed rapid growth, generally sometime between late February and mid-March. Core aeration, where hollow tubes remove a plug of soil and deposit it on top is good; spike aeration, where the spikes push a hole in the ground but do not remove any soil, not good. Spike aerators compact the soil all around the hole, so that’s not worth much.

  4. Pingback: A Must-Do’s for January 2021! – The Landscape Market

  5. This is really appreciated that you have presented this data over here, I love all the information shared. It will be very helpful to understand about top 5 must dos for January 2020. Great post to share, thanks for publishing this here!!If you are looking same kind of valuable information, then can also visit Yardscape.co.nz

  6. My Floratam grass has struggled since it was put in and finally gave out this year. It is under a scrub oak that sheds a lot of leaves and this year the mother lode of acorns. We still would like grass in the front yard, but now we plan on moving the grass right up to the house line and switch it out with the mulched area that is right up against the house now.

    Is there a grass that can grown on the sand and that doesn’t require a ton of light all day. I don’t care if it gets burrs in it either. We just want something green in our front yard.

    Thanks, Shirlee Smith

    1. Floratam is more shade tolerant than bermuda, but it still would like very bright shade at the least, and preferably a few hours of direct sun. You might consider creating a bed under the oaks, filled with shade tolerant shrubs, and let the leaf fall and acorns serve as a free mulch. American beautyberry and turks cap are native in exactly that habitat, and will give you colorful berries and blooms while feeding butterflies, songbirds, and hummingbirds with a minimum of watering or other effort on your part. They are both more pleasing to our eye if they are pruned back substantially just one time, in late winter (last week of January).

  7. What can we do to prevent gofers and moles from destroying my yard? We have tried 3 different types of traps but none have worked this far.

    1. There’s a natural product called MoleMax formulated form castor oil that repels moles and gophers. We no longer carry it, but you should be able to find it relatively easily. Or you can try making a home remedy of castor oil and detergent and pouring it down the hole.

  8. I have clover in my back yard. How do I get rid of it. It seems not to ever go to the front yard, only in back.

    1. The first thing you can do is spread a pre-emergent, Crabgrass and Weed Preventor granules to prevent more from sprouting. Typically this is done October and January. Next spray Weed B Gon hose-end spray when the weather is warm and sunny with no rain in the forecast. This week looks good to spray. You may need to reapply in 3-4 weeks.

    1. Hi Kim – we are liking a new organic weed killer called GroundClear for this purpose. Horticultural vinegar is another organic option. Both of these should be sprayed according to the label/directions and only on the weed(s) you want to kill.

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