Important January garden tasks involve shrubs, fig trees and birdhouses

Two articles ago we focused on some of the tasks that the month of January invites us to undertake. This week, I would like to offer more suggestions.

Last time, I briefly mentioned the importance of feeding your established beds of pansies, cabbage, kale, chard, parsley, dianthus, etc. Specifically, add about one cup of 8-8-8 or 10-10-10 or a similar complete fertilizer per 100 square feet of surface area. If using a soluble or slow-release fertilizer, be sure that at least half of the nitrogen it contains is in the nitrate form.

Why? Because that is the form of nitrogen which plants can immediately use. The urea and ammonium forms of nitrogen must be broken down by soil bacteria first and then converted to the nitrate form; this takes time and higher temperatures than are normally found this time of year.

Till the garden spot now. Doing so will expose and kill many insects, weeds and nematodes.

Remember that now is an excellent time to plant shrubs and trees. The perfect time to transplant is on a cool afternoon when the soil is moist from a recent rain. It is permissible to prune away several branches to make the plant small enough to handle easily, but no more than one third of the total canopy should be removed.

Generally, the fewer roots that are retained, the fewer branches that should be sacrificed. Dig a large hole at least twice, and preferably three times, the size of the root ball of the plant to be transplanted. Plant it at the same level it was growing in its original container. Water generously after planting in order to settle the soil around the roots and remove air pockets from the soil.

Prune fig trees now. If overgrown, remove no more than about one-fourth of the branches from it. Removing any more will reduce the number of fruit this summer. Try to retain as many of the horizontal branches as possible.

Clean out bluebird boxes and other birdhouses this month. It won’t be long before our feathered friends will be coming back around to nest in them.

Overgrown liriope (border grass) can be trimmed now. Mow the scraggly leaves at your mower’s highest setting. Don’t worry – they will grow back quickly in the spring.

I’ll bet you didn’t realize there were so many interesting and important gardening tasks to be done in the dreary month of January. You’d better get to work. February will be here before you know it!

Tim Lewis is a Georgia Green Industry Association Certified Plant Professional, gardening writer, former Perry High School horticulture instructor, and former horticulturalist at Henderson Village and Houston Springs. He and his wife, Susan, own and operate Lewis Farms Nursery located on Hwy 26 two miles east of Elko, where he was born and raised. He can be reached at (478)954-1507 or timlewis1@windstream.net or at LewisFarmsNursery.com.

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