Lawn & Garden

Alabama Gardener’s Calendar – January

2 min read
Holly berry tree

Learn—month by month—the necessary gardening activities for lawns and shrubs, annuals and perennials, fruit and nut trees, and bulbs, roots, and tubers. Included is a timeline for activities such as soil testing, planting, pruning, fertilizing, pruning, mulching, indoor plantings—from cauliflower to okra, from camellias to dahlias to heirloom roses.

Fruits and Nuts

  • Set out apples, peaches, pears, and grapes.
  • Start grafting pecans. Prune dormant trees.

Shrubs

  • Plant shrubs and trees, including broadleaf, narrow leaf, and deciduous.
  • Graft camellias in south Alabama.
  • Apply an ultrafine horticultural oil spray to all deciduous shrubs to help with control of insects and diseases.
  • Spray when weather is on warming trend.

Lawns

  • Soil test and add limestone as recommended.
  • Apply preemergent herbicides if forgotten in September and if spring weeds were a concern last year.

Roses

  • Visit nurseries and garden centers to select varieties.
  • Plant roses. Consider old fashioned, disease tolerant cultivars.

Annuals and Perennials

  • Plant hardy annuals

Bulbs

  • Late plantings of Dutch bulbs will flower if planted now.
  • Plant lilies of all types, except Madonna.
  • Check stored bulbs and discard rotten ones.
  • Make indoor plantings of amaryllis, callas, and gloxinias.

Evergreen treeMiscellaneous

  • Prune winter-damaged limbs.
  • Give house plants a bath in lukewarm water to remove dust.
  • To keep poinsettias that have finished flowering, turn pots on their sides and let them dry completely.
  • Cut them back lightly.
  • Keep in a temperature of 55 to 60 degrees.

Vegetable Seeds

  • South: Plant hardy vegetables and root crops (garden peas, radishes, mustard, spinach, turnips). Start cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, and Swiss chard seeds in cold frames.

Vegetable Transplants

  • South: Plant broccoli, celery, collards, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce transplants, and onion sets.
  • South and Central: Plant asparagus in late January.
  • Central: Plant cabbage and cauliflower transplants. Wait until the end of January to plant Swiss chard, mustard, transplants, and onion sets.

Questions?

Call the Master Gardener Helpline at (877) 252-4769. A Master Gardener Extension volunteer is waiting to answer your call.

 

See other months from Alabama Gardener’s Calendar at www.aces.edu.

 

Peer ReviewKerry Smith, Extension Associate, Horticulture, Frances Sledge, Horticulture Intern Auburn University. Originally prepared by Dave Williams, former Extension Horticulturist, and Ron Shumack, former Extension Horticulturist.

Reviewed July 2022, Alabama Gardener’s Calendar – January, ANR-2613

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