Gardening In Perth In January

January 9, 2014 Gardening Gals Uncategorized

Gardening in Perth during January can be challenging dealing with the heat waves and strong, hot winds.

Vegetables to plant in January include: beans, beetroot, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, leek, lettuce, radish, rhubarb, shallots, silverbeet, spring onion and turnip,

Flowers to plant in January include:  alyssum, aster, dahlia, gerbera, impatiens, marigold, nasturtium, pansy, petunia, portulaca, salvia, stock, sweet pea, verbena and zinnia.

January is a great time to attend to the following tasks in the Perth garden:

• Divide bromeliads
• Trim hedges and espaliered plants to maintain good shape
• Dead head roses to encourage more flowers
• Tip prune basil regularly to encourage bushy plants
• Top up mulch on everything – including pot plants – to help retain moisture in the soil
• Check your worm farm regularly to ensure it does not dry out
• Tip prune native shrubs that have finished flowering to help make them bushier
• Harvest fruit, vegetables and herbs daily
• Clean out excess plants from your pond
• Remove suckers from grafted plants, especially citrus, robinia and roses
• Prevent seeds forming on agapanthus by removing spent flowers
• Prune roses by one third to encourage good flowering for autumn
• Remove a third of developing fruit on trees to reduce disease, increase fruit size and quality and to evenly distribute the weight of the fruit
• Cut back lemon verbena, mint and lemon balm so they don’t become leggy. Use the prunings to flavour drinks
• Remove dead leaves from tropical plants such as palms, cordyline, strelitzia, ginger and bromeliad and strappy plants such as kangaroo paw
• With a chance of summer storms, January is a good time to ask a qualified arborist to check all trees and remove any dangerous branches

Happy January gardening in Perth!!