Vegetable, Fruit, and Herb Gardening in January

Tired of all the lame wilted lettuce flown in from who knows where at the grocery store? Grow your own winter salad!
For an interesting ornamental plant and a culinary addition, buy a plump, unshriveled, ginger root at the grocery store and plant it in a light, sandy soil just under the surface in a 6- to 8-inch pot. Place it in a warm, sunny window and keep damp until shoots appear. Water more frequently and fertilize monthly with high-phosphorus fertilizer. Harvest your crop in about eight months saving a piece to replant.
Record those items you wished you had this year (dried flowers, herbs, pickles and preserves) and make sure while doing your garden plan, you plant appropriate plants for next year's harvest.
Parsley seeds are slow to germinate. Sometimes it can be three or more weeks before they show signs of growth above the soil. To encourage them to sprout more rapidly, soften the seeds by soaking them overnight in warm water. Then put 3 or 4 seeds in a pot full of soilless mix, such as equal parts of peat moss and vermiculite, plus a tiny bit of ground limestone and fertilizer. Keep the media moist during the entire germination time. Set plants in garden in early May.
If you have heavy soil now is the time to dig over the plot, once the soil is turned over the winter frost can penetrate the large lumps and break down the soil into a fine tilth. This will considerably ease your task at planting time.
Check winter mulches and replace any that were dislodged in bad weather, dogs, chickens, etc...
Check your yearly growth on fruit trees (apples, pears, plums, and cherries) Start at the tip of the branch and trace it back to the terminal bud scale scars. These ridges encircle the stem and mark one years growth. Yound fruit trees stypically grow 10 - 20 inches a year. Bearing (after three years) trees grow approximately 8 -12 inches. Stunted plants will benefit from heavy application of compost tea in the spring. Make a note on your spring schedule to do this. Take care, overfertilization can stimulate stem and leaf growth, increase risk of disease, and prevent fruiting.
Remove hazardous or storm damaged branches. Save major pruning for late winter when you can correct winter damage and do structural pruning at the same time.
Look for gypsy moth, tent caterpillar, and other egg masses throughout the winter. Tent caterpillar's eggs look like a gob of mud stuck on the branch. Prune out the branches or smash the eggs. This will prevent feeding damage caused by these pests in spring. Gypsy mothe egg masses are yellow to beige. Scrape these egg masses off the tree's trunk and destroy them. (a small jar of old gas from the mower you emptied in late fall works well)
Make sure all your animal fencing is still intact and effective.

"Though an old man, I am but a young gardener."
-- Thomas Jefferson

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