January To Do List

Plant: ornamental & wildlife

• Annual transplants: pansies, violas, calendula (wildlife plant), snapdragon, stock, larkspur, ornamental kale & cabbage, bluebonnet transplants, poppies. Transplants are preferred over seeds at this point.
• Evergreen perennials
• Trees, shrubs, roses
• Evergreen groundcovers like monkey grass, liriope, creeping germander, frogfruit

Plant: herbs

• Calendula, chervil, cilantro, chives, dill, parsley, feverfew, oregano, sorrel, thyme, garlic chives
• Protect cilantro and chives in below freezing weather

Plant: food crops

• Artichokes, asparagus, onions, greens, lettuce, spinach, radish, carrots, beets, bok choy, collards, kale, peas, turnips, leeks, broccoli
• Prep potatoes to plant in February. Get now to cut and dry for a few weeks
• Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Vegetable Planting Guides (Central Texas)

Plant: fruit

• Apples, peaches, pecans, pears, pomegranates, persimmons, figs, almonds, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries

Prune

• Okay to prune freeze-damaged perennials. If possible, leave as long as possible for wildlife shelter and food on seed-bearers
• Prune grapes, fruit trees, blackberries
• Cut asters and chrysanthemums to rosettes
• Late month: prune woody salvias as much as ⅔ to encourage new growth
• Trees, including red oaks and live oaks
• Prune rosemary and oregano
• Avoid pruning other evergreen shrubs

Divide/Move

• Dormant perennials, roses, shrubs and trees. This is the best time to move plants!

Prep

• Add compost to vegetable gardens along with organic fertilizer in prep for another round of winter vegetables
• Soil test

Lawn

• If must mow, keep high to shade out germinating weeds
• It’s really not a good idea to overseed with rye unless you have new, muddy construction and a dog!

Other tasks

• Spray trees
• Keep floating row cover available; avoid covering plants with plastic
• Spray fruit trees with dormant oil to control overwintering scale, plum curculio and other pests.

Tips for all 12 months