Garden Notes January 2026

It is January 1st today.  Sunny and cool.  I walked through all my gardens.  They whisper to me of all the delights that are coming in the spring.

I rooted 6 more Pringle Aster.

Jan week 2.  The coneflower seeds are beginning to sprout that I sowed  a few weeks ago. I pulled up chickweed.  And I began clearing out the Shade Garden.  All the White Snakeroot has finished seeding and turned brown.  I snap the debris off at the soil level.   I began clearing out all the ginger debris as well.

On Friday evening, I met with Jane and Richard at Los Patrones for a NPSOT board meeting. Tim Siegmund will be our next speaker, so I'm looking forward to that.

Saturday, I had 12 yards of mushroom compost delivered ($598 with tax), and I began the process of pulling my roses out of buckets and putting them back in the ground.  A couple of years ago, I dug them all up and planted them in feed buckets.  I was convinced that voles were eating the roots.  Well, that always looked like hell, so ugly.  So I decided to put them back in the ground this winter.  I dug deep holes where the buckets had been, filled them with compost, and planted the roses.  Then I dumped the bucket of soil into my wheelbarrow and wheeled it over to a spot next to the Vegetable Garden.  I am making a big pile of soil which I will find a use for.  And the buckets get relegated to the area near the wood pile.  I will find a use for them as well.  Many of the buckets also had fennel growing in them because I was convinced that the deer didn't like the smell, and it was deterring them from eating my roses.  All the fennel was moved to my Kitchen Herb Garden.  By the way, I'm not sure fennel works as a deer deterrent - when deer are hungry they will eat roses.  But, the fennel is great for butterfly larva, so it is useful regardless.  I cut back all the roses I moved because I'm sure they all went into shock.  I'm not done, but I've made a good start.

I did some leaf raking and dumped the leaves in the Daffodil Border.  I'm almost done with that chore.  Less weeds in the Daffodil Border - that's my goal.

Turned all my compost piles.

I moved some Heartleaf Skullcap in the Rose Garden from the path into the bed.

Sunday, more of the same.  I planted some roses into the ground, dumped the bucket soil into my pile.  I composted everything heavily.

I planted 2 Passalong Pink verbena in the Star Garden.  First, I cleared out chick weed.  It's a very chick-weedy area.  

I planted a Christmas tree-shaped rosemary in the Star Garden that Amy gave me.

Spread compost over the small asparagus bed.

Spread compost around my Cinco de Mayo rose in the Star Garden.

Mid-January.  Bert is re-framing all the raised beds in the Vegetable Garden.  That's a good thing, it hasn't been done since the garden was first built.  A lot of the wood was rotted and most of the beds just have the original outline of a frame.  His timing is perfect because I want to spread compost in all those beds and prep for spring planting.

I had pretty good success with blueberries last year, so I decided to buy some more.  I bought 4 more at The Arbor Gate.  I wanted some of the old classics like Tif Blue or Brightwell, but they didn't have any with names that I recognized.  I bought some anyway without doing any research.  Silver Dollar gets 2-3 feet tall, Climax gets 6-8 feet tall, Powder Blue gets 8-12 feet tall and Hello Darlin' gets 4-5 feet tall - if I can keep them alive and thriving.

It's not the right time to prune my Zepherine Drouhin rose in the Rose Garden, but I did it anyway.  I got rid of peppervine that had wound itself up through the canes, peppervine is the bane of my existence in the Rose Garden.   I put poison on the cuts of some of the really thick vines.  I removed dead canes, cut away crossing branches and removed a few old canes that were still alive but definitely not pretty.

Spread compost here and there.  I planted another rose - Enchantress -into the ground.  One less feed bucket in the Rose Garden.  I had a Tickseed and salvia in a bucket.  I transplanted them over to the wild corner of the Rose Garden.  Composted around it.

I began the process of reducing the beds in the Star Garden (in order to make way for the mower - no more spraying).  I dug up all my Indigo Spires salvia, pulled up the cedar edging, raked and tried to smooth out the dirt as best I could.  That area is now empty.  I cleared out chickweed and wildflower seedlings in the long bed of the Star Garden, and I planted 5 big clumps of Indigo Spires.  I planted 4 clumps in the Black and Blue Sage bed.  That took about 3 hours, it was hard work but worth it because, if I had tried to buy plants that big it would have been very expensive.  I composted everything and watered it well.

I filled two of the beds that Bert built.  I mixed several truck loads of compost into the beds with the existing soil until they were about 2 feet deep.  I planted Yukon Gold potatoes in one and onions in the other. 

I dug a Henry Duelberg salvia out of the front bed.  It was interfering with my gold iris.  I spread a thin layer of compost around my iris.  I spread compost around all the iris in the Rose Garden as well.  It's not good to cover iris with a lot of soil ofr any kind because they like their backbone exposed.  I will push it away once winter is over.

Planted the four blueberry shrubs in the Orchard and covered them with compost.

I began cutting down the Southern Wood Fern in the Dining Room Bed.  I have some Louisiana iris growing amongst the ferns, and I want them exposed for spring.  That bed is the only spot I have that stays pretty wet because the sprinkler is messed up and doesn't shoot very far.  So I plant wet-loving plants there:  Ferns, Buttonbush and Louisiana iris.

I began picking up all my debris piles and doing some raking.

Spread compost around my Debutante camellia and watered it really well.  It's very dry, and a big cold snap is coming.  I just felt like it needed a little pick me up.  I spread compost around a couple of roses in the Rose Garden - Caldwell Pink and one of my Belinda's Dream roses.  I raked in there for a while.

We had a pretty good rain and a cold snap towards the end of January.  The temperature stayed below freezing for several days.  I didn't bother protecting anything here because 1, that's too much work and 2, because 30 degrees is really not that cold.  Only the most frost sensitive plants are unable to survive that temperature.  Hibiscus, camellias, and gingers can easily make it through 30 degree weather.  Brussels sprouts, no problem as well. 

I see 6 large Engelmann daisy seedlings in an area where I threw down seed a couple of years ago.  I gathered the seed from a patch on Sandtown Rd.  Nothing showed up last year, but this year I have 6 plants growing.  My patience is rewarded!

I finished cutting down all the Southern Wood Fern debris in the Dining Room bed so that the Louisiana iris aren't smothered.  That partnership is not sustainable.  I guess I will have to move something at some point.  

Today is January 31st.  Very cold and sunny.  I finished clearing out white Snakeroot debris from the Shade Garden.  There is still some here and there, but mostly gone.  I also cut away yaupon and greenbriar and poisoned the cuts.  Spread compost around the camellia, the Arkansas Oak, the Firespike, and dumped a wheelbarrow-ful of compost in a spot where I need to plant something.  I don't know what I'm going to plant, but it's a big blank spot, so I will consider my options. 

Next, I worked in the Vegetable Garden.  I pulled weeds, cleaned up paths, and filled several raised beds with compost.

I pruned my pink Vitex.  That job is a booger each year because all the branches are so thick.  I use loppers and a small electric saw and a ladder.  It is not a small chore.  Last year I didn't even bother with it, but it blooms better with a pruning.  

I cut down some yaupons in the small cleared area on the neighbors property next to the Rose Garden.  I poisoned the cuts.  I don't want yaupon taking over in there since it's right next to us, plus that area has a beautiful stand of Red Gaillardia, and I don't want that to disappear.

My last bit of good news in January is that I noted my John Fannick phlox in the Water Garden is not dead.  I really allowed it to suffer last summer, so much so that I thought it had died.  But I see a good stand of it just popping up.  That made me smile.