Welcome to the new year! It's a little cold outside but there's still a lot to do outside in the yard. Leaf removal, fertilizing, pest control, mowing, debris removal and the occasional mowing can all still be done in the winter. Here are a few other tips for your winter yard:
http://www.lawnmastersllpc.com/januarytips.html
Not a lot going on in the Landscape this time of year. Just a few things to
think about. Try to keep any tender plants from freezing during periods of
long hard freezes if your in the Transition zone. Here in Northwest
Tennessee we can have some plants that are bordering on being too far
north. They will grow alright here as long as we protect them in the winter
from any hard freezes where it gets down to 20 or below for a day or two.
If it gets colder than this or stays that cold for very long your marginal
plants will most likely be killed.
To protect these plants cover them with plastic or any material to keep the
wind from blowing constantly on them, and anything that you can put on
top of perennials and bulbs and such for insulation will help also. We use
everything from mulch to actual insulation, straw and anything we can
find. If you have something like Banana trees or something in a pot you
can put them in the basement, under the house or anywhere to keep them
out of the severe weather. Sometimes it doesn't take too much to save a
plant from freezing death and you have it to use again next year.
Time to start looking at plants that you think you might be wanting for
this year. Before you know it Feb and Mar will be here and its time to
start planting new plants, soon to be followed by annuals and perennials.
Start looking at those seed catalogs now!
If you live in an area with predominant high winds, your landscape plants
could benefit from an application of an anti-descicant spray. This is a
protective coating that will protect the plant from loosing too much
moisture due to wind blowing on the plants all the time.
Dormant oils can also be applied this time of year. Dormant oils are a
softer approach to insect control. A dormant oil is a product that will coat
certain insects and smother them. Euonymas scale is one such insect.
They have a hard coating on them similar to a turtle shell. The scale is a
very small white powdery looking critter. If you lift up the leafs of
euonymas and look on the bottom, you may see hundreds of them so thick
that all you see is a white flaky powder. Spraying regular insecticide on
them through the year isn't very effective since the coating they have
protects them, so a dormant oil applied when the shrubs are "dormant"
will smother the insect without killing the plant.