What to do in your garden in January

As January is mid-summer it can get incredibly hot, so try to do your gardening in the early morning or in the late afternoon. This goes for watering too, which helps with reducing condensation. Rather don’t transplant shrubs this month and for best results, plant seedlings in the evening when its cooler. January is a busy month for your garden and it’s time to start sowing Winter flowering annuals and vegetables.

Pests and disease

• Red spiders are a real problem during hot, dry months and affect many plants, including fuchsias, roses, hydrangeas and beans. So use an organic pesticide if you wish to get rid of them.
• During hot, humid days, or following heavy rainfall, fungal diseases like, powdery & downy mildew, rust and black spot are especially prevalent.  Barberton daisies, roses, dahlias, daisy bushes, geraniums, hydrangeas and vegetables like pumpkin, squash, egg plant and tomatoes are most susceptible.

Flowers

• Continue spraying your roses and water and fertilise them regularly to encourage more blooms. You can prune them lightly if necessary and remove any weak or frail growth. Remember that roses need plenty of healthy leaves to protect them from the severe summer sun.
• Lift and divide overcrowded white and green arum lilies that are starting to die down.  Cut off all the old leaves and replant only healthy plants, adding lots of compost.
• Cut back perennials such as lavender and daisy bushes, to promote a second flush of flowers before winter.  Pull out the flowering stems of lilies as they finish flowering.
• Water-loving plants like azaleas, camellias, hydrangeas and fuchsias need plenty of water during January and will benefit from having their leaves sprayed with water regularly. Your camellias will be forming their winter and spring buds now, so water them regularly, but don’t over fertilise them as this may cause them to grown new leaves instead of flower buds. Remove any seeds from your fuchsia plants and cut back the growing tips that aren’t flowering to encourage the formation of secondary buds along the stems.  Feed them with organic 3:1:5 and water regularly. 
• When cutting off dead flowers try to leave as many leaves on the plant as possible, to produce food for next year’s bulbs.

Compost

• If necessary, mulch your beds with a layer of compost or bark chips, to conserve moisture.  Don’t mulch with wood shavings, as this will attract white ants.  Coarse bark mulch, bought from a reputable supplier contains a type of tannin, which repels white ants.    

 
Kitchen Garden

• Continue to feed and water your vegetables regularly, especially in hot, dry weather.  Mulch your lettuce and water it regularly (30% shade will benefit lettuce in Summer). This is the last month to sow beans unless you live in subtropical areas.  Feed your cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts with an organic liquid fertiliser that is high in nitrogen.
• There is still time to sow seeds of herbs such as; parsley, dill and sage.  Basil can still be sown in warm, frost free regions. Take semi-hardwood cuttings of your herbs like rosemary, thyme, tarragon, marjoram and sage.
• Feed your strawberry plants with a high nitrogen fertiliser, water them regularly and mulch the soil.
• Protect the ripening bunches from birds with mesh bags or bird netting.     
• Prune your deciduous fruit trees in the summer by removing any strong branches that are growing in the centre of the top of the tree and overshadowing the centre.  The fruit bearing shoots on the inside of the tree could die off because of the lack of sunlight and the fruit that does grow in the shade will be of poor quality.  When your trees have finished bearing fruit, feed them with a good general fertiliser like 2:3:2 and remove all fallen or rotten fruit from the ground.  Continue to splash fruit fly bait onto the leaves of late bearing varieties every ten days. 

Indoor Plants

• Mist spray your indoor pot plants regularly with water, this will keep them clean and healthy, especially in air-conditioned homes and offices where the air tends to be dry.
• Start feeding your orchids with a feeder that is low in nitrogen, but high in potash like 3:1:6 to encourage the formation of the flower spikes.  Water and mist spray regularly in very dry regions.

Lawn

• Don’t cut your grass too short and remove any grass cuttings immediately. 
• Fertilise regularly with a balanced, organic fertiliser. A fertiliser high in potassium like 3:1:5 will encourage strong, deep roots that are more heat tolerant.