A new year brings fresh momentum in the garden. January is a month of growth, harvest, and preparation — a time when the work you’ve put in over spring really starts to pay off. It’s also the ideal moment to look ahead, make small adjustments, and support your soil through the hottest part of the season.

One of the most valuable habits for any home gardener is planning ahead, particularly when it comes to soil health. Healthy soil doesn’t just happen — it’s built gradually through good feeding, smart crop rotation, and consistent care.

Why Crop Rotation Still Matters

Even in small home gardens, rotating crops year to year makes a noticeable difference. Changing what you grow in each bed helps prevent nutrient depletion, reduces pest and disease pressure, and encourages a more balanced soil ecosystem. Over time leaving the same crops in the same place can exhaust the soil — rotation keeps it productive and resilient.

Supporting Summer Growth with the Right Fertiliser

As plants move into peak growth and fruiting, they need steady nutrition to perform well under summer stress. If you’re looking for a reliable, all-round fertiliser that suits almost every part of the garden, Super Charger Pellets are a proven option for New Zealand conditions.

Super Charger Pellets have now been available in retail stores for over a year and continue to deliver consistent results across vegetable gardens, fruit trees, lawns, and ornamental plants.

What’s Inside Super Charger Pellets

This balanced blend combines:

- - Chicken manure
  - Sheep manure
  - Blood and bone
  - Humate

Together, these ingredients provide both immediate nutrients and longer-term soil improvement. The addition of humate is key — it helps improve nutrient uptake, supports beneficial soil microbes, and improves soil structure, making nutrients more available to plant roots when they need them most.

How to Use Super Charger Pellets

- Before planting: – Mix a small handful into the soil to replace nutrients used by previous crops and give new plants a strong foundation.
- For existing plants: – Apply one or two handfuls around the base of established plants and water in well. This supports continued growth and fruiting through summer.

Used regularly, Super Charger Pellets help plants cope better with heat, dry conditions, and heavy cropping.

January Jobs in the Garden

Vegetable Garden

Planting:- January is perfect for sowing late-summer and early-autumn crops such as lettuce, carrots, beetroot, radishes, spring onions, and spinach. These crops will mature as temperatures begin to cool.
Harvesting:- Pick crops like zucchinis, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and capsicums regularly to encourage continued production and prevent plants becoming overburdened.
Weeding:- Weeds grow quickly in summer. Staying on top of them ensures your vegetables don’t lose moisture or nutrients to unwanted competition.
Watering:- Deep, consistent watering is essential. Water early in the morning or later in the evening to minimise evaporation and stress on plants.
Mulching:- Applying mulch around plants helps retain moisture, suppress weeds, and protect soil from extreme temperatures.

Fruit Garden

Harvesting:- Enjoy berries such as strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, along with stone fruit like peaches, nectarines, and plums as they ripen.
Maintenance:- Remove damaged or diseased fruit promptly to reduce the risk of pests and disease spreading. Net fruit trees early to protect ripening fruit from birds.
Water & Soil Care:- Fruit trees and berry plants need consistent moisture during fruit development. Adding humate to compost or soil significantly improves water retention — humic compounds can hold up to seven times their weight in water, helping plants through dry summer periods.

January is about balance — enjoying the harvest while continuing to care for the soil that makes it all possible. With good nutrition, smart watering, and ongoing maintenance, your garden will continue to thrive well into the months ahead.

Here’s to a productive, healthy, and rewarding garden in 2026.

Happy gardening,
The Dave’s Garden Products Team

January in the Garden – Setting Your Soil Up for Summer Success