Garden Tasks by Month | January in Zone 5
Dear Garden Diary,
"Gardening is a 365 day-a-year activity.
If you only garden from Mother's Day to Labor Day (May to September), you are missing a great opportunity.
It's not something you have to do everyday, but there is something interesting available to do each and every day."
William Aldrich & Don Williamson
How true! Which is why I'm putting together a little list of to-dos by month, to remind me of garden tasks to focus on each month in my zone 5 garden.
Some might call them garden "chores", but not me. I just can't call "enjoying", "planning" and "dreaming" chores.
Now, if I ever ask myself what I should be doing in my garden in January/winter, here's a gentle reminder:
☐ Recycle Christmas Tree
☐ Savor winter interest when it snows
☐ Make ice-wreaths, ice ornaments
Plan and Dream!
☐ Look outside and think what will make your garden more interesting.
☐ Imagine the garden you would like to have. Make sketches, lists of your ideas.
Maintenance Tasks
☐ Maintain houseplants (water, move around the house for various light needs.
☐ Water outdoor evergreen shrubs if the soil is not frozen. Evergreens lose water through their needles all winter long.
Digging ....deeper.....
Enjoy!
1. Recycle Christmas Tree
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| Recycled cut Christmas trees in the yard |
2. Fill bird baths and bird feeders
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| A cardinal in winter |
3. Savor winter interest when it snows
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| A beautiful view of my back yard after a heavy snowfall. The garage roof looks like an iced cake and the branches and fence outlined in snow create wonderful winter interest. Evergreens, bushes, branches, tree trunks and permanent structures are all canvases for Father Winter when he paints with his snowy paintbrush. |
4. Make ice-wreaths, ice ornaments.
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| An ice wreath hanging in the garden |
If temperatures are going to be sub-zero for a few days on end, consider making ice wreaths to hang outside in the garden. Fill them with cut fruit, berries, evergreen leaves and bird seed. This is a winter activity that both you and the birds will enjoy.
Plan and Dream!
1. Catch up on reading. Look through seed catalogs and gardening books to plan for the upcoming months. What needs to be changed/ updated.
I pore over my favorite books on garden design at this time of the year. Some of my favorites are:
- Big Book of Garden Designs with over a 100 landscaping plans for every garden space is a dreamer's dream with plans for theme, tropical, sun, shade, cottage gardens, flower beds and vegetable plots.
- The Well Tended Perennial Garden by Tracy Disabato -Aust focuses heavily on the pruning and maintenance needs of perennials and is an essential reference guide and encyclopedia for the perennial gardener.
- Practical Gardening by Peter McHoy is everything I need to know about designing a garden, planning the best plantings and how to put the plan into action.
2. Look outside and think what will make your garden more interesting.
With all the leaves and beds bare, this is a good time to visualize how you'd like your garden to look in the upcoming months. Would you like to introduce more evergreens for winter interest? More hardscaping like rocks, benches, lanterns, bird baths? More flowering plants to attract bees and butterflies? Plant a hedge/creeper to block an unsightly view?
Check our Your Garden Sanctuary's Ideas for architectural plants for winter interest and adding winter interest to your landscape.
3. Imagine the garden you would like to have. Make sketches, lists of your ideas.
Make rough sketches of the garden you would like to have. Perhaps something needs moving in Spring? Or maybe the flower beds would look better curved rather than straight. Or perhaps, you're considering expanding the vegetable bed. Dream and draw it out, so that once spring comes you have a plan and are ready to go.
Maintenance Tasks
1. Dust snow off evergreen branches after heavy snow.
A wet snow is heavy and can weigh evergreens down, injuring branches. Sweep the snow off evergreens using a broom.
2. Maintain houseplants (water, move around the house for various light needs.
This is a good time to devote some TLC to your indoor plants. Continue to water them, move them to sunnier spots in the windows but away from heating vents and radiators.
3. Water outdoor evergreen shrubs if the soil is not frozen. Evergreens lose water through their needles all winter long.
It might seem counter intuitive to water plants in winter, but plants/ shrubs that were planted the previous season still need water through winter. When the soil is not frozen, water these plants. Also, water small-medium evergreen shrubs through winter.
4. Call a professional arborist to inspect your mature trees.
With many trees bare of leaves, winter is a perfect time for trees to get a check up. Mature trees require maintenance, so call a professional arborist to inspect them for disease, cracks, branches growing too close to the house etc. Winter is also a good time for getting large trees pruned while they are in their dormant state and are not growing.
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| 'Berry Poppins' Winterberry at Cantigny Park, Wheaton, IL |
On a winter visit to Cantigny Park, Wheaton, IL after a snowfall, I was floored by the profusion of stunning red berries on the sweetly named "Berry Poppins" Winterberry (Ilex vericillata).
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| Winterberry at the Idea Garden in Cantigny Garden, Wheaton, IL in winter. |
Additional Readings:
Gardening Month by Month in Illinois by William Aldrich and Don Williamson
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