Can you believe it’s January already? I know January In the Garden sounds a little crazy too! Lot’s of people are under two feet of snow and it’s below zero outside. It’s a little easier to think about gardening here in the Pacific Northwest because at the moment, the average daily temperature is 40 degrees, and a few days ago we had sunshine.

I guess you would have to say I am a visual thinker-is there such a thing? I visualize that once the holidays are over and we’ve entered the month of January that we have come around and turned the corner. Now we are heading straight towards Spring, I can see it just barely way down at the end of the tunnel.  Every glimpse of sunshine makes it seem even closer.  Gone are the things that remind me of Winter, like Christmas and baking and cold.  I am fooling myself a little bit as we can still have some snow or a cold spell in January, but that’s ok, I like to live in denial.

I would much rather be daydreaming about seed packets and what I’m going to plant, of flowers sprinkled here and there to attract the bees, and all the vegetables we love to eat. Even though it’s only January there are still a few things we can do in the Garden  or for the garden, so let’s get started.

January Garden to do List

1. Clean up any dry, dead, old growth that hasn’t been cleaned up yet.

2. Pull any weeds that survived the winter.

 3. Draw a plan of your garden and what you are going to plant, remember to rotate your crops.

4. Order the Organic non GMO seeds you need. Seed packets can last more than one year if proper stored in a sealed container in a cool dry place.

5. Test you soil’s PH level to figure out what your soil needs.

6. Prepare to start some seeds indoors. Buy seed starting mix.

7. Do any of your garden tools need repair or replaced?

8. Are your bird feeders stocked?

9. Warm up your soil for planting peas by covering it with small garden cloche.

10. Start a garden journal, keeping track of crop rotation, what has produced well and what hasn’t, etc.

Just when you thought there wasn’t anything to do in the garden in January. This should keep you busy and get your gardening juices flowing. Take a minute and put your feet up and enjoy browsing through the seed catalogs, be careful it’s easy to get carried away, with all the pretty pictures of flowers, fruits and vegetables.

Tags:  Gardening January