Gardening Basics

2018 Gardener’s To-Do List For January | Gardening In January

Everything you need know to start gardening in January.

Here is your gardening guide for January 2018. I’ve listed it to included USDA hardiness zones 3-10 since its covers 99% of American gardeners.

 

If you don’t know what USDA Plant Hardiness Zone you live in, check the map here to find out.

 

Things to keep in mind for every zone:

  • Organize a list of what vegetables you would like to grow and how you would like to grow them. Consider companion planting, raised garden beds, container gardens, and hydroponic systems.
  • Order seeds ahead. I grabbed my choices from Amazon here.
  • Check out your zone’s planting calendar. It will tell you when you should start growing particular veggies. Click here to see a planting schedule for your zone.

 

Zone 3

  • Check your leftover seeds and/or make a list of what you want to grow before ordering.
  • Order seeds and plants early to avoid substitution.
  • Research and decide what gardening design strategies you would like to use.

Zone 4

  • Organize your seeds: Discard those that are too old; then make a list of seeds to order.
  • Order seeds of onions, geraniums, and other slow-growing plants now so you receive them in time to start indoors next month.
  • create your garden plan.
  • Build a garden trellis for veggies that grow up.
  • Harvest all greens such as artichokes  during any warmer weather in January.

Zone 5

  • Start seeds of pansies and hardy perennials.
  • Replenish your supplies, including seed-starting mix and organic fertilizers.
  • Where there isn’t much snow cover, push back any plants that have “heaved” out of the ground because of freeze-thaw cycles.
  • Order seeds such as broccoli (you can start as soon as March).

 

Zone 6

  • Discard old seeds for the garden; mail orders for new seeds.
  • Start seeds of pansies, dusty miller, begonias, snapdragons, and delphiniums indoors.
  • At month’s end, start seeds of onions, leeks, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower indoors.

Zone 7

  • On mild days, remove winter weeds, such as wild onions and chickweed.
  • Sow seeds of Shirley poppies (Papaver rhoeas) for bloom in May and June.
  • Sow larkspur seeds directly in flowerbeds where you want them to grow; look for blooms by midspring.
  • Start seeds of cabbage, early lettuce, and at the end of the month, broccoli.
  • When onion and cabbage transplants are available at the garden center, select the best ones, then plant them in the garden beneath a row cover.
  • Near the end of the month, weed the asparagus bed and strawberry plot, then feed the plants and renew the thinning mulches.

 

Zone 8

  • Shop local nurseries for asparagus roots, strawberry plants, and fruit trees.
  • Cover root crops still in the ground with an extra layer of mulch.
  • When cold temperatures are predicted, protect transplants of onions, cabbage, broccoli, and chard with a row cover.
  • Sow beets, carrots, radishes, cress, bok choy, and garden peas directly in the garden; cover the planting rows with dark compost to warm the soil.
  • Sow seeds of herbs, such as dill and parsley.
  • Sow seeds of annual flowers such as delphiniums, snapdragons, and larkspur are good choices anywhere you want flowers.
  • Top-dress lawns and garden beds with compost.

 

Zone 9

  • Use the weather to your advantage: Observe the location of standing puddles left by winter rains; note where you need to improve drainage for plants.
  • Finish pruning fruit trees, vines, and bushes.
  • Sow seeds of geraniums, peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant in pots filled with a peat moss/vermiculite mixture; set the pots on a sunny windowsill until it’s warm enough to plant them outside.
  • In the garden, “scratch in” wildflower seed mixes and California poppy seeds; plant nasturtium seeds a bit deeper.
  • Set out transplants of pansies, calendulas, and primroses.
  • As the soil warms, plant carrots, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, cilantro, parsley, and Asian greens.
  • Harvest carrots, radishes, and Brussels sprouts—sweetened by frost.

Zone 10

  • It’s the dry season—water vegetable plants, non-dormant tropical plants, and bedding plants regularly.
  • Spray compost tea on roses and bromeliads.
  • Mulch peas to extend the harvest.
  • Sow pumpkins and winter squash directly in the garden; start cucumbers and watermelons in pots.
  • Sow quick-maturing varieties of carrots, broccoli, cabbage, coriander, parsley, and dill.
  • Plant heat-tolerant chicory, lettuce, and Swiss chard in shade so that they stay cool when the weather warms.
  • Snip off flowers of tropical fruit and young citrus to save their strength while they grow.
Jasmine

Jasmine is your everyday multidimensional plant lover and new mama who loves black women and plants so much, she created Black Girls With Gardens! There are 3 things you'll find Jasmine doing separately or simultaneously: 1. Planning for BGWG 2. Plant Shopping 3. Doing both with her baby girl! Go figure!

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