Monthly Gardening Calendar
Sharon Morrisey, Consumer Horticulture Agent
University of Wisconsin-Extension in Milwaukee Co.

Gardeners can hibernate in January if they want. Fall’s final chores should be finished. Plants are bedded down for the winter and its too early to start seeds for spring. Even houseplants slow down and need little of our attention.

Armchair gardening is in full swing, however. Reading books, magazines and catalogs may look like inactivity but in reality it is how gardeners do research. Spring will be here before you know it and you need to have a plan.

Two of the best resources for gardeners in Wisconsin are the University of Wisconsin – Extension’s Urban Horticulture Team website and InfoSource phone messages. The Hort Team website with printable factsheets and articles by UW-Extension specialists is at http://wihort.uwex.edu.

InfoSource is an automated system with over 400 pre-recorded messages to access via your phone or computer. The website for scripts is http://infosource.uwex.edu/ . The phone service is now tollfree statewide at 1-800-441-4636. Milwaukee area callers should still call 1-414-290-2450. InfoSource message numbers related to this month's calendar entries are given in parenthesis after the entries. Use them to access more detailed information via the website or phone. The daily Dial-A-Garden-Tip, a timely message recorded each day of the year, is now option number 3 in the main list of options.

 

First Week

Reuse your Christmas tree in your own yard to provide protective cover for our feathered friends.  Place it near an existing feeder or make the tree itself a natural feeding station.

Another option is to cut off the limbs and use them to cover planting beds where perennial flowers, strawberries, parsley, carrots, etc. are trying to survive the winter.

They also give added protection when used to screen broadleaf evergreens like boxwood, hollies, and rhododendrons from sun and wind.

Next spring these limbs, bare by then, can be used to stake vining vegetable plants and perennials that tend to get floppy such as delphiniums and peonies.

The Christmas tree trunk stripped off its limbs can be used as a naturalistic bed edging or lay it at the back of a mulched perimeter planting bed allowing it to decompose naturally.

Bulbs in cold storage for forcing can be brought out now if they have had their proper chilling period.  Small bulbs like crocus and hyacinth need 8 weeks and larger ones like tulip and daffodil need 12 - 14.  If potted before storing, simply move them into a warmer and lighter area and begin watering.  If stored cold but unpotted, plant them in a well-drained medium that will also hold plenty of moisture.
 

Care of poinsettia, amaryllis and holiday cactus after flowering includes bright light, cool temperatures and reduced watering.  Start fertilizing now with a dilute, balanced fertilizer.
     

Check trees and shrubs for signs of rodent, rabbit, and deer feeding.  Install small mesh hardware cloth, chicken wire or plastic trunk guards. Apply repellents to susceptible plants like young fruit trees and burning bush.  Be certain to reapply repellents often since they wear off over time.
     

Second Week

Brush off ice and wet snow from tree and shrub limbs.  Use an upward sweeping motion to prevent breakage.  Tie together tall, multiple stemmed evergreens like arborvitae with wire covered with hose segments or old pantyhose.  Sometimes bent branches can have small cracks that are invisible once the branch has snapped back into place. Then in June when the branch inexplicably wilts, the correlation to this winter damage is seldom made.

Use tree wrap on trunks of newly planted trees as well as those species with thin bark like linden, ash, mountain ash, and maple.  This helps prevent frost cracking of the sun warmed bark (generally on the southwest side of the tree) when it freezes again rapidly after the sun sets on a winter day.  Always wrap from the ground up so the overlap sheds water rather than collects it.  Remove wrapping in spring. 

Third Week

Indoor foliage plants really benefit from an occasional cleaning.  Dust settles on leaves and clogs "pores", hindering light penetration, gas and moisture exchange.  Give them a shower to wash the leaves.  Water that runs through the soil helps leach out minerals and salts.

Wait until really vigorous growth begins again in the spring to transplant potbound houseplants.  Fertilize sparingly now and also water so that the water runs through the soil and out of the drainage holes.  Do not allow plants to reabsorb this water since it contains salts and minerals that can be toxic when they are concentrated in the soil. 

Fourth Week

Now is a great time to start garden carpentry projects.  Plans for cold frames, trellises, benches, etc. can be found in the many gardening books available at your public library.  Build a lighting rig for starting vegetable seeds indoors.  Use one cool white and one warm white fluorescent bulb in a fixture which can be adjusted to keep it 4 - 6" above the plants, adjusting it as they grow.

If you are getting antsy inside, do a tool inventory and cleaning.  Hoes, shovels, and spades all need to be sharp to perform at their peak.  Soak and scrub to remove dirt.  Then coat with light oil to protect metal surfaces.  Sand handles and apply boiled linseed oil.  Use a splotch of brightly colored enamel spray paint to personalize them.  This also makes them easier to locate when left lying among the foliage.

Seeds that are slow to germinate and require long growth periods to be ready for the garden in late May can be sown indoors now.  These include impatiens, petunia, and begonia.  Be forewarned, however, that supplemental lighting is almost an absolute to successfully grow these seedlings indoors for such a long time.  Use specially designed heat mats to provide bottom heat to produce really strong seedlings.