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February

Flowers & Ornamental Grasses

Flowers & Ornamental Grasses

Fruits, Vegetables & Herbs

Fruits, Vegetables & Herbs

  • Make a list of herbs you use for cooking, crafts and gifts.  Plan to grow a few of your favorites in this year’s garden.
  • Create a seeding chart for recording plant names, starting dates and other important information. 
  • Start vegetable plants from seeds indoors. Follow packet directions for planting times. Use clean containers and sterile seed starting mix.
  • Fertilize seedlings once they begin to grow.  Use a dilute solution of a complete water-soluble fertilizer every other week.
  • Check seedlings for sudden wilting and collapsed stems caused by damping off disease.
  • Add a little zip and nutrition to your winter meals with homegrown microgreens.
  • Start thinning and pruning raspberry plantings as the snow begins to recede and before growth begins.
  • Those gardening in milder climates can start cleaning the garden as weather permits. Check and repair animal damage, remove plant debris and cut back grasses and perennials as needed.
  • Continue to monitor plants for animal damage throughout the winter.

Groundcovers & Vines

Groundcovers & Vines

  • Continue to monitor your landscape for signs of rabbit, vole and deer damage.  Adjust protective fencing, reapply repellents and alternate scare tactics as needed,
  • Watch for and manage frost heaving in the garden caused by freezing and thawing of the soil throughout the winter.
  • Monitor the health of tropical vines overwintering indoors. Make any needed changes in their care.
  • Purchase or build supports for new or existing vines as needed.
  • Southern gardeners can begin pruning overgrown summer-flowering vines.
  • Dig, divide or prune liriope back to 3 to 4 inches above the soil surface if gardening in the south.

Indoor & Holiday Plants

Indoor & Holiday Plants

  • Continue removing forced bulbs out of cold storage. Place in a cool location and allow several weeks for the bulbs to sprout and bloom.
  • Once forced bulbs are done flowering you can grow them on like houseplants before placing in the garden or add them to the compost pile.
  • Remove the flower stem on your amaryllis once the blossoms fade. Grow it like your other houseplants if you plan on forcing it to rebloom.
  • Clip a few branches from spring-flowering trees and shrubs such as crabapples, serviceberry, spicebush, forsythia and pussy willows to force for indoor bloom.
  • Finish pruning tropical hibiscus overwintered indoors to encourage summer bloom outdoors. Start fertilizing with a flowering plant food once new growth begins.
  • Transplant potbound houseplants into a container with drainage holes that is one size larger than the current pot.
  • Check houseplants for salt buildup.  This appears as a crusty, white substance on the soil surface or as white stain rings on clay pots.
  • Watch for mealybugs that look like little pieces of cotton in the leaf joints and stems of a variety of houseplants.
  • Leaf spot diseases can attack houseplants, especially those that have been overwatered.  Remove infected leaves and adjust care to correct the problem.

Lawns

Lawns

Trees, Shrubs & Roses

Trees, Shrubs & Roses

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