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North Mississippi Gardening Tips
January/February, 2003

Notes for the Winter Garden

You may think the garden looks asleep during this cold part of the year. But think again. There is plenty of activity-below ground if not above. Dormant trees and shrubs are still producing feeder roots, pansies and other hardy winter annuals are still showy, and dormant buds will begin to swell very soon.

Now is the time to inventory the garden and get the jump on that list of spring gardening chores that seem to pile up rather quickly when the weather warms. Take the time to stroll around the yard and garden with notebook and pencil in hand. Make lists of all the "have to" chores and then make a list of the "want to" chores. Examples of a "have to" chore are any corrective or other pruning that should be done on trees and shrubs before spring bud break. A "want to" chore would be to finally design and order the seeds and plants to establish that cut flower garden you've always wanted. Keep these lists handy and, as weather permits, do each chore, checking it off the list.

You'll be surprised how motivating these lists can be, especially if you stick them in conspicuous places as a daily reminder-on the fridge door works well for me! I'll admit to yanking some of these unchecked lists off the fridge in disgust by June. But, hey, for now you and I can pass the cold month ahead making lists, dreaming and planning for that perfect yard and garden. To help get you going on the road to garden utopia read on!

Perennial and Annual Flowers

Take advantage of this gardening slack time to critically evaluate your flowerbeds. Now is the time to decide what flowers to plant where. You may have to make notes, or draw the bed on paper to get a better idea of the overall feel and look you are trying to achieve. Use that mountain of seed and plant catalogs that are arriving daily in the mail as a resource for plant pictures and information to help in your design and plant list. Once you have an idea and a plan for your beds take your plant list and plans to your local nurserymen. Select a nursery or garden center that does landscape design and installation. It will be worth your while to get these professionals' opinion and guidance. They can tell you what plant material on your list will be available and what you may have to order as seed or plants.

Bulbs

If you haven't gotten those spring bulbs planted yet, you're in trouble. You can go ahead and plant and hope for the best, but chances are the bulbs will not have time to establish a good root system before top growth begins. You probably will not get the bloom number and size you would have gotten if you had planted those crocus, daffodils and tulips back in November or December. Learn from this and try to do better next year-those bulbs can be expensive and you surely want to get your money's worth! Some very early buttercups may try to bloom the end of January and will certainly be blooming in February. Remember that spring bulbs need fertilizing after blooming, not before, to keep them blooming beautifully year after year.

Trees and Shrubs

Continue to plant dormant container-grown, balled and burlapped or bare-root trees and shrubs during January and February. Pruning of evergreen shrubs (other than those like azaleas that bloom in the spring) should be done now or anytime before spring growth begins. If no pruning is necessary on your trees and shrubs, but there are some obvious cold-damaged stems, resist the temptation to prune these winterkilled branches out until March or April when you can determine exactly the true extent of winter damage.

Vegetable and Herbs

As mentioned early, now is the time to assess the garden's performance last spring and summer and determine the changes needed to make the vegetable and herb garden a success this year. Did your family eat all the broccoli you grew? Would one row suffice rather than two this year? How much basil do you need to grow to satisfy your mama's taste for pesto? How about considering trellising your cucumbers this year rather than letting them run rampant on the ground-it's getting harder every year to bend up and down without hurting something, isn't it? I read somewhere that what a gardener really needs is a cast iron back with a hinge in it. It would be my luck that my hinge would rust and I'd get stuck in the bent over position!

If you need help determining how much of what to grow for your vegetable garden you need to get your hands on the Mississippi State Extension publication #1091, "The Garden Tabloid." This great publication has a list of recommended varieties, planting dates, fertilization, insect and disease control guidelines and a wealth of other information. Pick one up from your county Extension office of download it from the University website, msucares.com. When you get to the Mississippi State University homepage click on publications and you can easily find it from there.

Fruits

Fruit trees and berry plants will be arriving in nurseries soon. Choose your selection early and get them in the ground for the greatest chance of success. Pruning of established fruit trees can be done now and anytime before spring bud break. Be careful not to remove fruiting spurs when pruning apples, plums and pears. Prune muscadine and bunch grapes. Plant nut trees like pecan, walnut and Chinese chestnut. Remember to plant two or three chestnuts so they can cross-pollinate. Also, select at least two cultivars of rabbiteye blueberries to plant to ensure good pollination and fruit set. Do not plant figs or strawberries until February or March.

Want to try something different? How about trying one of the Asian pear varieties or how about growing oriental persimmons? Check with your local nurserymen or garden center and see what they have available. Some good varieties that were recommended by a grower at the recent Deep South Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference were "Housi" and "Ya-Li" Asian pear varieties and "Fuyu" and "Jiro" oriental persimmon varieties.

Lawns

To control existing winter weeds in dormant lawn in January and February use a post emergence herbicide or mow them down to keep them from producing seeds for next year's crop. Perennial weeds like wild garlic are hard to control without repeated applications of a lawn formula herbicide. I have learned to live with my garlic and onion lawn problem. I am of the "grow and mow" school of lawn maintenance. Whatever grows in my yard gets mown like it belongs there. Don't get me wrong. I do use herbicides on occasion, but I try to limit their application to control only those problems that cannot be handled in another way.

If you want to try a novel approach to winter onion and garlic control, my brother suggests that you get a goat and stake the animal out in your lawn during the months that these weeds are actively growing. Do this for several years and the close grazing that the goat does will eventually deplete the bulbs of nutrients and kill them. My brother swears by this, but he offers one caution. If it's a nanny goat, don't drink the milk! Pheww!

Lelia Scott Kelly, Ph.D., writes North Mississippi Gardening Tips monthly and is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.