February Gardening Tasks

Autumn is overall my favorite season, but from a gardening perspective February is pretty cool. You’ve just received most of your new 2010 garden catalogs, it’s getting closer to spring gardens – but not so close that you’ve got tons of work to do, and there’s more excitement because you’re not sure what will happen in the garden this spring yet but it’s fun to plan.

I’m sort of a list person though, so the planning stages of gardening are really fun for me. If you’re a getting your hands dirty is the most fun ever type, no worries spring is coming soon. Until then there’s still some stuff to do, such as…

Unless you’re having nice warmer weather you still need to cover frost-sensitive plants at night. Uncovering is fine if it’s warm enough in the morning.
As you should always be doing, be on the lookout for weeds and take care of them right away.
Shop for shrubs and vines that flower early. Ideas – azalea, camellia, and early rhododendrons. I just got a lovely azalea today actually – I’ll post more on that later.
Get your garden plans ready to go for the spring. Most of us start combing the catalogs early (January) but honestly, it’s better to have a garden plan ready before you choose seeds and plants.
This is also a good time to check your saved seed packet inventory so you don’t order seeds you don’t need.
If you haven’t ordered seeds and plants yet now is a good time. After you make your plans (see above) place orders for all your new seeds and plants; including perennial plants and bulbs that will grow awesome cut flowers for summer. Plan to have vases full for the entire summer season.
Depending on your area, you can now plant bare-root vegetables, bare-root roses and other ornamentals and spring perennials.
You can start a few seeds inside right now like marigold (fun for kids) or petunia seeds.
If it’s reasonable enough – i.e. not blanketed in snow, you can even plant strawberries right now as soon as they’re available at local nurseries.
Take a walk around your garden and look for any plants that have been pushed up by frost heave. Make sure to gently push them back down.
If you have deciduous fruit trees, roses, or wisteria you should make sure you prune them soon.

Of course depending on your garden specifics and local area, there may be more or less to do. The best way to plan monthly garden tasks is by speaking with local area gardening experts. For example, folks in Ohio or Florida are absolutely not doing the same tasks as folks in Oregon.

[image via stock.xchng]