January Gardening Jobs - Take care of your trees

January 09, 2012 Ella Dooly

January gardening jobs

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years everyone, plenty of food and fun with the family and all that business. Now it is 2012 and we can’t wait to start a new year of tree growth and life. January is not a month where there is much to do (lucky with the cold weather, I hear you say!) and you’d be right as well, the weather has been really terrible recently and that in part is why we are doing a little January gardening blog post.

Rather than give an exhaustive list of all the gardening jobs that could be done, we thought we’d just outline a few ones that will help you take care of your trees.

Gardening jobs for January

The weather has been particularly bad recently in the UK and we have been experiencing lots of wind (lots!!!) and particularly strong winds at that. Young trees are particularly susceptible to getting damaged in these conditions, if they get split now it can affect their growth later. So the best advice possible is to get your trees tied back to a fence or strong post if possible, to reduce the amount of effect that the wind has.

Leaf drop

Leaf drop is a common problem that a lot of citrus trees can get at this time of year, especially if they experience sudden dramatic changes in temperature. Have a look at our how to deal with leaf drop blog post.

Lemon leaf close

Young trees

Young trees are particularly prone to damage with the frosts. Evergreens, in particular, can suffer, so give them a helping hand by placing them nearer the house to give them a little extra protection from the elements. Frosts aren’t good for plants like the Olive Tree so giving them a little covering if we do get bad frosts would be a good idea.

Bay trees and olives can be treated harshly by the frosts.

Deciduous trees

Deciduous trees and most native trees, like most in our tree sapling range, will be absolutely fine at this time of year. They are dormant at the moment and so won’t be affected by the temperature. If you have received a sapling then they can be stored in a cool dark place for a couple of weeks before you get the chance to go out in the garden and plant it.

Holly Trees

Holly trees are really thirsty trees, so if you haven’t had a chance to pot out your tree into the garden and your holly tree is still in the pot it came in, make sure it receives plenty of water so it doesn’t dry out.