Gardening Tips for January for Louisville, KY

Southeast Region

• Test your garden soil for its pH levels. Contact your local Cooperative Extension office for a soil kit. Then, apply lime, sulfur, and fertilizer according to the soil-test results.
• Spread manure or compost over the garden and plow it under if you did not do so in the fall.
• Plant hardy vegetables and other cool-season crops, such as lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, beets, carrots, radishes, turnips, spinach, peas, and cauliflower. Start seeds of warm-season vegetables indoors.
• Make successive plantings of vegetables so that you have a continuous harvest throughout the growing season.
• Get plant beds or seed boxes ready for growing plants such as tomato, pepper, and eggplant. Have beds ready for planting in early February.
• Deadhead flowers to encourage new blooms.
• Refrigerated bulbs should now be planted in prepared beds. Provide a layer of mulch for protection from cold temperatures.
• Plant cool-season annuals in the garden beds, such as carnations, pansies, petunias, and snapdragons.
• You can start seeds of warm-season flowers now to have transplants ready for spring.
• Plant any trees and shrubs now. Water until established.
• Fertilize established fruit trees. Plant dormant fruit trees.
• Prune any damaged or dead branches from your trees and shrubs. Fertilize.
• To control scale on fruit trees, apply horticultural oil while plants are dormant.
• Ensure that your garden is watered if it is getting less than 1 inch of rain per week.
• You can apply dormant oil spray to deciduous fruit trees. Prune dormant fruit trees if needed.
• Use lukewarm water to wash any dust off of your houseplants; check them for any diseases or insects.
• Every month, mow your lawn at recommended heights (St. Augustine and Bahia: 3 to 4 inches; Centipede: 1.5 to 2 inches; Dwarf St. Augustine: 2.5 inches).