January - Hiding Behind the Stove

January - Tucked Away Indoors

In January, outdoor work is impossible. When there's frost and snow, it's best to leave the garden in peace.

Did you know that snow cover protects the garden from frost and provides it with moisture? In January, it's important to monitor the weather forecast and protect plants from black frost as needed. A January without snow can cause significant damage to crops.

January is the month of the year when it's time to dedicate yourself to garden tools, cleaning in the shed, or in the garden house or gazebo.

Every gardener is proud of their tools. Without proper tools, we would toil unnecessarily and tediously. Tools make us professionals. They help us achieve successful results. From experience, we know that cutting with a dull saw is hard work. Cutting with a quality saw is a pleasure.

Tool Maintenance:

• cleaning - clean spades, shovels, and wheelbarrows from soil
• impregnation - rust can degrade your tools. Oil or petroleum jelly work well against rust. Use our tool maintenance kit. Disinfect tomato stakes, lower ends of ladders, tree supports, wooden planters, and other wooden accessories with copper sulfate solution.
• repairs - carry out minor repair work. Check all handles and replace damaged ones with new ones. Secure loose fittings. Repair damaged fruit pickers.
• sharpening - sharpen all scythes, sickles, axes, knives, and spades. Sharpen knives and scissors from one side only. Sharpen saws alternately from both sides. Hammer scythes. Take lawn mowers and brush cutters to a professional service.
• storage - store tools appropriately. Allocate space and ideally hang tools on the wall.
• stock replenishment - occasionally visit hardware stores or our e-shop, and you'll often find various improvements or new products on the market. Development moves forward and tools are improving. It's also good to replace old with new. Don't forget to stock up on mouse traps, grafting wax, bast twine, nails, etc.

What Tools Do We Need?

Basic Tools:

Basic tools include equipment for working with soil. We need:

• two spades - pointed (suitable for deep digging in heavy or stony soils and for digging holes before planting trees) and straight (suitable for digging in medium and lighter soils and for incorporating manure).
• digging fork - essential for cleaning soil from weeds and for lifting bulbs and flower tubers
• hoes - we need five types - wide (for hoeing, weeding and breaking up soil crust), heavy forged (for heavier terrain work, turning compacted manure, digging soil around trees and preparing holes for planting trees), also double (with fork tines on one side and heart-shaped hoe on the other - primarily for weeding and hoeing in narrow rows), draw hoe (for weeding) and finally small hoe (one-handed hoe for work in small areas, used when thinning vegetables and necessary for weeding in rock gardens and flower beds).
• cultivator - suitable for deeper loosening of compacted soil in spring or after harvesting the first crop.
• rakes - we should have three types. Iron, both narrow and wide. Wooden. Wire and lawn scarifiers.
• shovels - two. Pointed for loading soil and sand, and round for loading lighter soils and compost.
• pickaxe - for heavier work

Furthermore, we need brooms, planting stakes, planting trowels, watering cans, saws, frame saw, handsaw, large saw, small pruning saw, grass sickle, fruit harvest baskets, fruit picker, knives, hoses, spray nozzles, scissors, steel brush, crates for fruit storage, garden hose and more.

Also always keep a small first aid kit at hand.

Birds in the Garden

We welcome beneficial birds in the garden - tits, nuthatches, treecreepers and woodpeckers. On the contrary, unwelcome guests are - blackbirds, sparrows and starlings. In winter, we attract birds to the garden with food - feeders and nesting boxes. The most beneficial bird is the tit, which feeds mainly on harmful insects.

Feeders - we place them so they are protected from adverse weather. Unhelpful sparrows usually don't visit hanging feeders that move.

January Thaw

Could damage the ornamental part of the garden. Heavy and wet snow can break fragile branches of ornamental plants. Particularly sensitive are columnar plant forms, which sag and break under the weight of snow. If possible, shake heavy snow off the branches. A normal layer of snow protects plants from freezing. If heavy snowfall threatens, tie columnar plants together with rope. This applies primarily to thujas, junipers, false cypresses, yews and others.

If the frost eases and there isn't enough snow, water your evergreen plants (conifers and broadleaf evergreens). Evergreen plants aren't damaged by frost, but by lack of moisture. Plants cannot absorb water from frozen soil. And since evergreen plants don't have a dormant period, they can dry out very quickly. It may look as if the plant has frozen.

Pruning Ornamental Plants

If winter is mild, you can start pruning ornamental plants. Prepare a saw and sharp pruning shears for pruning ornamental plants. Think about the design of your ornamental shrubs. You can't prune all shrubs according to the same template. Thin out overgrown and overcrowded shrubs. Remove weak and dead branches, as well as branches growing crookedly or inward. If you need to remove a thicker branch, seal the wound with grafting wax.

Hedges

If you have hedges made of deciduous plants in your garden, trim last year's growth. When trimming, make sure the hedge has a conical shape. Otherwise, the overgrowing upper branches would shade the lower branches and the hedge would thin out from the bottom.

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Author: Hana Michalíková