The Happy New Year brings all kinds of new opportunities to spend more quality time growing your favorite fruits, vegetables and herbs. We also take time to tune in to the winter season and what IS in season for us to harvest, cook with and be nourished by.
This is one of the reasons I love and live for gardening, because it keeps my family and me in tune with the natural cycles of life. Take a little time to peruse the calendar below and perhaps you will be inspired to plant, sow, or harvest something new or something you have never tried before. Enjoy your earth!
V= Vegetable, H= Herbs, A= Annuals, P= Perennials, B= Bulbs, T= Trees
DIRECT SOW
V: beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, collards, endive, garlic, kale, leek, lettuce, mustard, onion, peas, potato, shallot, sorrel, spinach, Swiss chard, turnip A: wildflowers
START IN FLATS
V: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, lettuce, kale, Oriental greens, spinach.
PLANT
V: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, kale, lettuce, onion, seed potatoes strawberry -bare root A: calendula, cineraria, English daisies, Johnny-jump-ups, English and fairy primroses, Iceland poppies, pansies, snapdragons, stock, viola P: bare root artichokes, asparagus, azaleas, bare-root bush-berries, camellias, grapevines, horseradish, lilacs, rhubarb, bare root roses B: gladiolus T: apples, pears, plums, shade trees
Harvest:
V:Broccoli, cabbage, carrots, leafy greens, onions, winter squash
FERTILIZE N-P-
Apply a balanced fertilizer for deciduous fruit trees late in month, before bloom. Fertilize citrus, 6-8 weeks before bloom with nitrogen. Fertilize amaryllis and azaleas after bloom. Cymbidiums at half strength every week and all other plants every 2-4 weeks. Annuals with fish emulsion.
PRUNE
Prune berry and grape vines, hydrangeas, passion vine, tea roses, wisteria, deciduous shrubs, blooming plants and deciduous fruit trees after leaf out.
MULCH IRRIGATION SOIL
Water deeply. Cover plants with burlap or cloth to protect from frost but do not let it touch foliage. Remove cover in morning. Mulch to prevent weed growth in flower and vegetable beds. Clean up under rose bushes.
PESTS
Pay attention to pests on deciduous fruit trees, especially pear, peach and nectarine. Clean up leaf litter, and rotten fruit that has fallen to prevent harboring insects.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Order seeds from catalogues. Transplant plants. Find orchids for indoors. Keep amaryllis and kalanchoe indoors. Move your live Christmas tree outdoors in part sun, then full sun after 1-2 weeks and put in bigger container if needed. Handpick weeds.
This calendar is based on Northern California gardening so keep in mind that planting times vary depending on location.