1. Apply Weed Preventer to Your Lawn
It’s winter and your lawn grass may be dormant but there are plenty of cool season weed seeds, such as Poa annua (annual bluegrass) and Henbit, getting ready to sprout in your lawn. To kill these seeds as they germinate you’ll need to apply a lawn weed preventer, such as Lebanon Team 2G, which is Step 1 on the Wilson Bros DIY Lawn Care Programs.
NOTE: Most weed preventers are sold by how many square feet of lawn area they will cover. So it’s a good idea to measure your lawn to determine total square footage. To do so, simply measure and multiply the length by the width of your lawn. For example: if your lawn is 100′ long and 50 feet wide the equation would look like this: 100′ x 50′ = 5,000 Total Square Feet.
See the Wilson Bros DIY Lawn Care Programs >
2. Transplant & Relocate Shrubs or Trees
Have some shrubs or small trees in your landscape that you’d like to move to another location? Because shrubs and trees are in total dormancy, January is a good time to transplant.
TIP: Whenever transplanting shrub or trees it’s a good idea to water them in with a good Root Stimulator, which reduces transplant shock and promotes greener, more vigorous plants.
SEE: How To Transplant and Relocate a Shrub or Tree >
NOTE: Some plants, such as established conifers and junipers, simply do not respond well to relocation.
3. Prune Non Spring Flowering Shrubs & Trees
We usually wait until February to prune many of the shrubs and trees growing in our own gardens, but if you want to get the job done early you can go ahead and prune *most shrubs and trees now. If you can’t shop at the Nursery and need new pruners, you can buy pruners online at WilsonBrosGardens.com
SEE: Pruning Instructions From Our Experts >
*CAUTION: DO NOT prune spring flowering shrubs or trees such as Azaleas and Forsythias (Yellow Bells) until after they have finished their spring bloom cycle.
CAUTION: DO NOT prune perennial Lantana shrubs until you see new growth begins to emerge in mid spring.
4. Prepare Vegetable Garden Soil for Spring Planting
January is a good time to prepare your vegetable garden soil for the upcoming spring planting season. If you do not make your own compost, at the Nursery we carry mushroom compost, composted cow manure and organic compost in bulk that you can use to replenish your garden soil with the rich organic matter your vegetable plants need to provide you with bountiful fresh produce. Turn at least 1/4-inch of organic matter into your garden soil.
SEE: How To Prepare Vegetable Garden Soil for a New Garden >
SEE: How To Make a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden >
5. Collect Fallen Leaves and Add Them To Your Compost Pile
Veteran gardeners swear by compost. It’s unrivaled for adding readily available nutrients and beneficial bacteria to vegetable garden soil, or adding to the mix when planting shrubs, trees, perennials, annuals, and container garden plantings. Compost promotes healthy and vigorous growth of plants. Plus, composting is an environmentally smart way to turn our houslehold food waste and vegetative landscape and garden waste into something besides a bulge in your garbage bag. Making your own compost is very easy – simply pile up leaves, clippings, kitchen scraps and other materials into a heap, and turn the pile occasional to help the facilitate fermentation.
SEE: How to Make a Compost Pile >
6. Plant Shrubs & Trees!
Contrary to popular belief, January and, in fact, the entire winter season is a great time to plant most ornamental shrubs, trees, or ground cover plants in Georgia and other states in the South. Winter planting of most shrubs and trees allows the plants to acclimate to their new environment over the winter. Too, when temperatures are above 45 degrees F the roots of plants will grow. Then, in spring, winter-planted shrubs and trees will benefit from the early-spring root flush, which means less attention to watering come summer time. There is absolutely no danger at all from planting most shrubs and trees in January in Georgia. Our landscaping installers plant through the entire winter!
SEE: Planting Instruction Articles From Our Experts >
SEE: Winter Flowering & Color Shrubs >
These tips apply to those in USDA Zone 8 of Georgia but may apply to other regions in the southern United States. Due to what is often cold and damp weather, and plants and lawns being in their dormant winter stage, January is usually a slow month in the landscape and garden. That said, there are some very important things to be done in January to prepare for the upcoming spring.
