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Gardening tips for January

By Joe Daniels

Look around at the outstanding plants this month in your garden .....or fellow gardeners.....The groundcover: Gaultheria(wintergreen). Shrubs: Cotoneaster, Ilex (all varieties), Leucothoe, Lindera(spicebush), Mahonia, Pieris, and Taxus (yew). Taketime to enjoy the ever changing landscape and what beauty is still apparent in the cold weather of winter.....and how peaceful nature can be in all the quiet beauty surrounding us daily.

Seasonal Tasks

• If you have been using salt to melt ice on walks and drives near trees and shrubs, consider using sand or sawdust at those locations instead.damage on needled evergreens will show as copper and yellow tints to foliage by spring. Deciduous plants will develop bronze or reddish leaves in the spring from salt damage.
• You can enjoy an early spring indoors by forcing branches of spring-flowering trees and shrubs - forsythia, crabapple and dogwood are among those which can be forced by placing cut (18-24") branches in water in a warm location.
• This is a good time to get spring gardening ideas from magazines and catalogs.
• Order from your seed and plant catalogs, many will be delivered shortly after the holidays.Choose old favorites, but also consider some of the Gardener Select plants or All-American Selections.When you are selecting plants, try to choose disease and insect resistant varieties.They will make gardening easier, reduce costs and reduce environmental pollution.
• Evaluate your garden work area and make any needed adjustments.
• Consider adding more plants with winter interest: evergreens, plants with attractive branching patterns or bark, to your landscape in the spring.
• Evaluate your landscape for energy efficiency.Plant evergreens toward the north to reduce winter winds, add deciduous plants to the west to provide shade in summer and allow solar-heating in the winter.
• Check summer bulbs in storage regularly for rot or decay; discard those affected.
• Continue to save coffee grounds and kitchen waste (fruit and vegetable peelings) for the compost pile.
• If your lawn is frozen, avoid walking in the same paths throughout the winter.
• When snows are very heavy, knock off accumulated snow from evergreens and other woody plants. Brush upwards to reduce damage. Prop up ice-covered branches until they thaw.
• Arborvitae and other columnar evergreens can be protected from splitting in heavy snows by wrapping the plant with rope to pull branches together.
• Branches from Christmas trees can be used to provide winter protection for low evergreens and evergreen perennials.
• Reapply mulches that have blown away in winter winds.
• If you have read my column to this point and have tried any of the above advice....maybe you should take a break.......come inside, warm up with a hot beverage and look over those spring catalogs some more......and dream.

Perennials:

• Spread winter mulch over perennial beds after the ground freezes hard (Tip: use the branches from your Christmas tree.*)
• If the ground hasn't frozen yet, finish planting any bulbs that were overlooked during the fall.
• Take a soil test if the ground is still workable.
• Have the lawn mower blade sharpened.
• Catch up on unread issues of gardening books and magazines that have been lying around.

Trees and shrubs:

• Erect a screen of burlap, shade cloth, or similar material(never plastic) to protect broad-leaved evergreens exposed to drying winter winds.
• Brush heavy snow off evergreen boughs to keep them from breaking. Start with the lower branches, then work upward.
• Spray foliage of broad-leaved evergreens with antidesiccant to help them retain moisture.
• Allow the ice on branches to melt on its own.
• Prune away the ragged stubs of broken and injured branches promptly with a smooth cut just in front of the branch collar.
• Mound mulch or soil over the crown and part of the way up the canes of hybrid tea roses.
• Prune large shade trees while they're dormant and the branch architecture is visible.

Annual flowers:

• Look through mail-order catalogs to select annual seeds you can start indoors during late winter.
• Get out seed-starting equipment and order peat pots and other supplies.

Vegetables:

• After a hard frost, clean up dead, dried plant debris. Cover beds with several inches of straw or chopped leaves, or plant a cover crop to protect the soil.
• Look through mail order catalogs and order seeds in time to start cool-weather crops indoors.
• Build new compost bins or repair old ones. Turn and consolidate compost piles to prepare for the new season. Attend a compost workshop this spring.

Christmas Trees:

• Once the holidays are over, recycle your Christmas tree. Many cities have tree recycling programs that may involve residential collection or drop-off locations. Check with your local department of public works. You can also chip and shred your Christmas tree into mulch for the garden, or cut off the boughs and place them on your perennial beds for added protection against spring thaws. When sunk in private ponds, they can provide protection for pond fish over the winter. Be sure to remove all decorations, lights, tinsel, or any nails used in the base of the trunk. Don't try to recycle trees or greens that have been spray painted. Do not burn Christmas trees in the fireplace; they can contribute to creosote buildup in the chimney.

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