10 Gardening Activities for January in the South

1. Test & Amend Soil

It’s a good idea to make testing your soil an annual affair to ensure that your plants get the proper nutrients. Beautiful plants, flowers, and food all start with great soil. You can buy a soil testing kit online or have it done by a professional lab (you mail in your soil and get the results emailed to you). Once you know what amendments your soil needs, you can begin adding fertilizer and compost. Read more about various ways to amend your soil from this Joe Gardener interview with Charles Dowding.

2. Audit Your Seed Collection & Start Sowing

As many gardeners know, but often forget, seeds have a shelf life. Germination rates deteriorate each year that they sit in storage. Each seed variety has a different viability length. Get out your seeds to audit them by looking on the seed packet for the date they were packaged. Compare the packing date to this seed viability chart for produce, herbs, and flowers. If your seed are too old, throw them away and start fresh. If you can’t find a packing date or want to test your seeds, you can perform a seed germination test. By late January, you can start sowing seeds indoors for early crops such as beets, broccoli, cabbage, celery, kale, lettuce, mustard, onion, and others. Use this seed sowing calculator to find the optimal time to sow seeds.

3. Harvest Winter Greens, Colorful Stems & Seed Heads

Take a stroll through your garden to look for foliage, stems, seed heads, berries, and cones that you can harvest for winter arrangements. Deep green conifer branches with vibrant red dogwood stems, tan seed heads, and brown pinecones makes a stunning container arrangement for porches, patios, or outside large picture windows. Check out this blog post by Deborah Silver that showcases how to make beautiful winter arrangements.

4. Plant Bare-Root Roses

You can begin planting bare-root roses as soon as the soil is workable. If you live in a location that doesn’t get hard freezes, you can begin planting when you see bare-root roses at your local garden center, typically from January through March or April. To plant bare-root roses, begin by soaking them in a bucket of water for several hours (you can even soak them overnight to make sure they are properly hydrated). Dig a hole that’s a little deeper than the roots and twice as wide; this will give the roots room to spread out. Add compost and mycorrhizal fungi to stimulate root growth. When placing the rose into the hole, be sure the graft union (the ball that all the stems jut out from) is 2 to 3 inches below ground. Then backfill the hole, making sure to compress the soil and water it thoroughly. Learn more on how to plant bare-root roses in this video from David Austin. If you’re still looking for bare-root roses to purchase, try Regan Nursery.

5. Visit a Southern Conservatory

Winter is one of the best times to visit garden conservatories because gardens are often less busy and stepping into a climate-controlled botanical wonderland feels great. Check out one of these terrific gardens under glass in the southern United States: Atlanta Botanical Garden (Georgia), Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden (North Carolina), Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Florida), and Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden (Virginia).

6. Add Garden Ornament & Structures

Winter is one of the best times to add garden ornament and structure to your garden. Many of the plants are dormant, so these architectural features really stand out. Observe your garden from your home’s windows or take a stroll through the garden to see where you may want to add containers, obelisks, statuary, sculptures, arbors, trellises, or other garden ornaments. Use restraint when adding features to your garden because you don’t want it to look overcrowded. Look for garden beds with masses of plants and select one special sculptural piece to place in the bed. Or add a series of three obelisks or trellises for architectural interest. Entries to paths are also great places for collections of containers or a special arbor. Visit Terrain or Gardener’s Supply to hunt for that perfect piece, or see some of our favorites.

7. Set Up an Indoor Garden

Growing herbs, microgreens, and salads indoors can keep your home feeling fresh and provide healthy produce for homecooked meals. Set up an area of your home for indoor growing—a corner of your kitchen will do, or perhaps an unused space on your countertop. Check out these mini indoor garden sets if you’re looking for an easy way to get started:

• 2-Tier SunLite® Garden
• Gardener’s Revolution Light Garden Kit
• Compact Tabletop SunLite® Garden
• Bamboo Mini LED Grow Light Garden

8. Start Dormant Pruning of Trees & Shrubs

Pruning trees and shrubs while they are dormant in the winter is a common method. This practice allows you to see the overall structure of the tree when pruning because often leaves are absent. You’ll also see lush new growth in spring. When pruning, look for crossing, broken, or diseased branches to remove. The Arbor Day Foundation has a great video to help you learn more about pruning trees.

9. Order Your Summer Bulbs, Corms, & Tubers

By late January, it’s good to get your summer bulb orders placed. This will give you the best chance at getting your favorite varieties of dahlias, gladiolus, cannas, lilies, ranunculus, crocosmia, and other great selections. Ordering this month will also ensure that your order arrives in time for planting. Planting in the garden should wait until soil temperatures rise above 60 degrees, but you can plant bulbs, corms, and tubers in pots 4 to 6 weeks before your average last frost. Check out spring-planted bulbs that are available from online retailers such as Longfield Gardens, Swan Island Dahlias, and Brent and Beckys Bulb's.

10. Order & Plant Bare-Root Fruit Trees

Bare-root fruit trees are often available at nurseries and online retailers from January through March. Get a jump on the planting season by shopping for trees in January. If you live in a climate with a mild winter, then look for trees with low-chill requirements. Order from online retailers such as Raintree Nursery, Stark Bros. Also, learn more about planting bare-root fruit trees from Stark Bros.