Five Gardening Tasks You Should Complete in February
February is off-season in many parts of the US. Although just two weeks ago my entire conservatory was lost to a solid inch of frozen ice, the last few days it has been in the mid 50s and the irises and tulips are starting to appear. Like most gardeners, this makes me both excited and worried with a capital T – am I behind yet? This is not true, because February is a time to catch up. So in this, the shortest of all months, you have not one, but two jobs: to wrap up all the unfinished tasks for winter, while at the same time preparing for spring. By the time we speak next month, planting season will be in full swing.
Prepare your fruit for an amazing season
We are in the final stages of work that will determine what kind of fruit harvest you will receive. Start by pruning the fruit trees and shrubs that you haven’t gotten around to yet. This includes blueberries, currants, huckleberries, winterberries and all other berry bushes. Prune and train grapes, and prune fall raspberries. Check with your garden center to see if it’s time to prune summer raspberries and other cane fruits. If you are planting fruit trees or shrubs this year, the window is now open. This is also a good time to replant any trees and shrubs that might do better elsewhere. I’m replanting a four-way cherry tree this year, so even though I know it’s a pain, the sooner the better. You can also start planting rhubarb.
Once you’ve completed the structural work described above, it’s time to think about fertilizing all those fruits. Your garden center can help you with fertilizers specifically for fruit trees, grapevines, and special acid fertilizers that blueberries love.
If you’re up for a challenge, consider capping or wrapping your strawberries to encourage early fruiting.
Take care of your roses
As with fruit, now is the time to prepare your roses for late winter. If you’ve never considered it before, this type of pruning helps your roses grow into strong vines with abundant blooms. Simply allowing them to grow without any pruning or training can result in skinny and crooked vines. Review rose pruning guidelines , sterilize your pruning shears, and wear hand protection. You’ll start to see roses at the garden center and later this month you can start planting them in the ground. All roses will also benefit from fertilizer.
It’s time to divide (some) your plants
There are many plants in your yard that benefit from dividing from time to time. Dividing gives plants more room to grow, greater ability to absorb nutrients, and allows roots to thrive. It’s also two plants for the price of one. Now is the perfect time to dig into these herbaceous perennials, divide them and move them. To do this, dig up the entire plant, generously bypassing the root ball. Lift it out of the ground and then break the roots with your hands or a sharp knife. You want to have at least three escapes in each division. Repot them during the day and let them drink some water and get some shade for a few days. These are not all perennials, but fall-blooming perennials. Asters, astilbes, irises, bee balm, cover flower, bleeding heart, daylily, phlox, hosta, lamb’s ear, agapanthus, ornamental grasses and sedum are some common plants to divide.
Resist the urge to tidy
The first week of 50-degree weather sends everyone into their yards eager to get back outside. While you should embrace the sentiment, don’t remove the leaves and woody stems you so graciously left behind in the fall. Beneficial insects that use leaves and stems to hibernate are not yet ready to emerge. You’ll have to wait until later in the summer. Meanwhile, these leaves and stems become useful mulch and compost. Put your energy into setting up your lawnmower for spring and keeping an eye out for any slugs and snails that made it through the winter.
On the verge of sowing
We are still too far away from being able to plant tomatoes, eggplants and summer vegetables in much of the US. However, you can start harvesting spring vegetables, including broccoli, cabbage, lettuce and other low-growing crops. If you can find starters at the garden center, you can put them in the ground now too. What can now definitely be sent into the ground are pea seeds, including sweet peas.
Right now you can sow the earliest annual flowers: petunias, purslane, sweet alyssum and hanging nasturtium, flowers for hanging and window baskets. You can put ginger and turmeric inside.
Basically, you should use this time to clean and sterilize your seed starting supplies with a mild bleach solution and make sure you have all the seeds you need for the year.