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.
Barbara luchte says
What can I use on back yard where I have dogs?
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 controljed says
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
Steve Tagliabue says
Does Gill’s carry the Bonide weed and crabgrass preventer?
Jesse says
Hi Steve – we sure do!
James says
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