Best Gardening Maintenance In January
Enjoy the bounty of summer by harvesting fresh food daily
Gardening Tips For Vegatables Garden In January
Fruit fly becomes more active as summer progresses and crops ripen. Use organic fruit fly baits and traps or cover individual fruit with exclusion bags. Clean up fallen fruit. As fruit fly is spreading to fruit-fly-free areas, watch for signs of attack in all areas. Use fruit-fly traps to monitor for their presence.
Set up systems to manage heat stress so plants can grow for longer and remain healthy. A temporary shade screen prevents sun damage and reduces the effects of hot, dry winds. On heatwave days, move potted plants into a shaded spot, check vertical and hanging gardens and cover nearby hard surfaces to stop reflected heat damage.
If some crops are failing to form fruit - particularly cucurbits - try hand pollination (transferring pollen from male flowers to receptive female flowers). Keep tomatoes well watered to avoid blossom end rot in fruit, which is a calcium deficiency exacerbated by erratic watering. While watering tomatoes and other crops, check plants for signs of pests and diseases and remove emerging weeds.
Harvest crops frequently so vegies are picked while they are small and tender. In the heat and humidity of the wet season, fleshy crops such as zucchini and cucumber quickly become over mature and lacking in flavour. Leafy crops, too, become tough and bitter as they age, especially if they start to flower, so always harvest these regularly. Large, seedy, watery or bitter vegies are best fed to the chooks!
Replace mature or diseased crops with fresh sowings to keep vegies developing through summer. Shade any new plantings to protect from both heat and heavy rains. Use shadecloth or rows of tall-growing plants such as sweet corn, sunflowers or trellises of climbing crops such as Ceylon spinach or beans that can provide a natural shade. Keep powdery mildew at bay with regular applications of milk spray (one part whole milk to 10 parts water). Pull out badly affected plants.
Gardening Tips For Fruits Garden In January
Thin developing apples and pears by removing several fruit in each cluster to encourage larger fruit. Hot or windy conditions while fruit trees were flowering in late spring or developing in early summer may have reduced summer harvests.
Dry conditions can also make fruit trees more vulnerable to pests and diseases. If rain is scarce, try to deeply water most trees, shrubs and vines at least once a week while they are cropping. Fig trees, however, love the hot, dry conditions so don't need additional watering. Apply organic fertiliser to fruiting plants, including apples, apricots.
pears and blueberries (water in well). Continue to protect ripening fruit from birds as they attack before it's fully ripe. Use nets or re-useable fruit baskets that snap over clusters. White nets are less likely to snare birds, bats and reptiles. Stretch nets so they are taut, avoid overly large nets that pool on the ground where they may trap small reptiles, and regularly inspect nets to free any trapped animals.
Keep harvesting summer fruit, including avocado, custard apple, mango and pawpaw. Small fruit may indicate a lack of water or exposure to strong winds as the fruit formed. Protect from wind damage. If fruit fais to form on passionfruit, try hand-pollinating. Check regularly for ripe pollen to transfer to the sticky female part of the flower. Use a dry brush or cotton bud to transfer pollen. Some varieties of passionfruit require a companion plant.
If there are fungal diseases on fruit or foliage, apply a copper-based fungicide. Sooty mould on leaves indicates pests. Also keep organic fruit fly baits fresh by regularly reapplying and protecting them from rain. Feed avocado, banana, custard apple, jackfruit, loquat, passionfruit and pawpaw. especially after periods of heavy rain, which leaches nutrients from the soil.
Compost & Soil Maintenance at Garden In January
Grass and weeds are growing rapidly after summer rain. Mow or weed around fruit trees to reduce weed growth and keep areas clear of snakes. Keep soils clear of weeds, especially around vegetables, by hoeing between rows. Cover bare soil with a thin (2-5cm) layer of organic mulch to help deter weed growth. Weeds steal water and nutrients from other plants and also harbour pests.
Chop up green prunings and seed-free weeds to add to compost heaps layered with dry leaves. Compost will be breaking down rapidly with the summer warmth, so regularly use compost from the heap by spreading it over soil as natural mulch to protect soils, keeps them cool and deter weed growth.
Compost heaps should be moist but not too wet. During extended periods of heavy rain, cover heaps with old carpet or cardboard to stop them from becoming too wet. Conversely, if the weather is hot and dry, compost heaps can dry out and may need to be watered. Keep worm farms in a cool location as hot spells can kill worms.
Repeated and heavy summer storms leach nutrients from soils. Counteract this by regularly renewing organic mulches throughout the summer months. Mulches protect soil but also add nutrients as they break down. An easy way to do this is to lay down chopped-up prunings, including palm and fern fronds, to protect the soil.Reinvigorate soils with applications of slow-release fertilisers, which won't be as readily leached.
Apply fertiliser that contains potash to rapidly growing vegetables and fruiting crops. In fallow vegie beds plant a green manure crop to naturally add fertility to the soil in time for dry-season planting. Dig the green manure crop into the ground before it begins to flower to maximise the added nutrients. Use the cool of early mornings or early evening to do vigorous work such as digging, spreading mulches or turning the compost heap.