As we start another year, now is a good time to evaluate your landscape and decide on what your gardening goals are for the coming year. Do you want to add another garden bed, or maybe you are planning a long vacation and want to downsize your garden. Whatever your gardening goals are, stay focused and you can achieve them.

It’s always a fun time of year when seed catalogs are showing up in the mailbox, online sales are beginning, and new merchandise is in the garden centers.

Here are a few tips to get you started in the new year:

• For those with tall fescue lawns, this is a good time to remember to go out and stir around any tree leaves remaining on the ground. Heavy accumulations of leaves will tend to smother the turf grass, depriving it of air and light.

• It’s a good idea to check the status of your rain gutters, drainage grates, etc. to make sure your drainage systems are functioning properly before the spring rains.

• If you have plants that have suffered from heavy infestations of scale insects, consider making a dormant oil application when the daytime temperature is over 40 degrees. Do not apply dormant oil to evergreen plants as damage will result.

• Warm January days are a good time to control winter broadleaf weeds in your dormant bermuda grass lawn. As always, follow label directions carefully when using all pesticides.

• Prune out tree seedlings while they are obvious in the winter landscape.

• Now is a good time to look at the bones of the garden and start planning to fill in gaps in the landscape or remove plant material if it’s too crowded.

For more info on this or any other horticultural topic, you can contact me at the Sequoyah County Extension office, email me at todd.trennepohl@ okstate.edu, or call 918-775-4838.