OSU Gardening Calendar

January

Planning

Keep a garden journal. Consult your journal in the winter, so that you can better plan for the growing season.
Check with local retail garden or nursery stores for seeds and seed catalogs, and begin planning this year's vegetable garden.
Have soil test performed on garden plot to determine nutrient needs. Contact your local Extension office for a list of laboratories or view EM 8677 online.
Take hardwood cuttings of deciduous ornamental shrubs and trees for propagation.
Plan to replace varieties of ornamental plants that are susceptible to disease with resistant cultivars in February.

Maintenance and Clean Up

Clean pruners and other small garden tools with rubbing alcohol.
Reapply or redistribute mulches that have blown or washed away during winter.
Place windbreaks to protect sensitive landscape evergreens against cold, drying winds.
Central/Eastern Oregon: To prevent winter damage from drying, water plants deeply every 6 to 8 weeks, when the temperatures are above freezing.
Western Oregon: Do not walk on lawns until frost has melted.
Western Oregon: Water landscape plants underneath wide eaves and in other sites shielded from rain.

Pest Monitoring and Management

Monitor landscape plants for problems. Don't treat unless a problem is identified.
Scout cherry trees for signs and symptoms of bacterial canker. Remove infected branches with a clean pruner or saw. Sterilize tools before each new cut. Burn or send to landfill before bloom. See EC 631, Controlling Diseases and Insects in Home Orchards (PDF).
Watch for field mice damage on lower trunks of trees and shrubs. Eliminate hiding places by removing weeds. Use traps and approved baits as necessary.
Use dormant sprays of lime sulfur or copper fungicide on roses for general disease control, or, plan to replace susceptible varieties with resistant cultivars in February.
Western Oregon: Moss in lawn may mean too much shade or poor drainage. Modify site conditions if moss is bothersome.
Mid-January: Spray peach trees with approved fungicides to combat peach leaf curl and shothole. Or plant curl-resistant cultivars such as Frost, Q1-8 or Creswell.

Houseplants and Indoor Gardening

Monitor houseplants for correct water and fertilizer; guard against insect infestations; clean dust from leaves.
Protect sensitive plants such as weeping figs from cold drafts in the house.
Propagate split-leaf philodendrons and other leggy indoor plants by air-layering or vegetative cuttings.
Plant dwarf annual flowers inside for houseplants: coleus, impatiens, and seedling geraniums.
Western Oregon: Gather branches of quince, forsythia, and flowering cherries; bring indoors to force early bloom.

Download a PDF of the January Calendar for easy printing.

Updated September 10, 2009.

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