Fertilizing
- Shade trees can be fertilized.
- Fertilize emerging spring flowering bulbs.
- Spread wood ashes around the vegetable garden, flowering bulb beds and non-acid loving plants if the pH is below 6.0.
Planting
- First week in February start broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower plants inside your home.
- Plant English peas, onions, Irish potatoes, radishes, rutabagas, spinach, kale, turnips, and carrots the last week of February.
- Plant asparagus crowns when soil is dry enough to work.
- Plant fruit trees and grape vines while dormant, before buds open.
Pruning
- Prune bunch grape vines this month.
- Trim ornamental grasses like liriope, mondo grass, and pampas grass.
- Cut back any overgrown shrubs.
- Prune fruit trees, such as apples, cherry, nectarine, peach, pear and plum while dormant, before buds open.
- While pruning, remove leaves and clippings to prevent disease problems.
Spraying
- Peach and nectarine trees need to be sprayed with a fungicide to prevent leaf curl.
- Spray all fruit trees with dormant oil to help eliminate some insects.
Lawn Care
- Cool season lawns like tall fescue should be fertilized. Follow soil test results.
- Control wild onion in your lawn with spot sprays of a recommended herbicide.
Propagation
- Divide perennials like daylily and shasta daisy when the ground is dry enough.
- Hardwood cuttings of many landscape plants like Crape Myrtle, Flowering Quince, forsythia, hydrangea, juniper, spiraea, and weigela can be taken this month.
Specific Chores
- Clean out bluebird boxes.
- Order flowers for your sweetheart – Happy Valentine’s Day!
- Develop a vegetable and landscape plan for your home grounds.
- Order strawberry & blueberry plants.
- Bring cut branches of forsythia, winter honeysuckle, spirea and quince inside. Place branches in water filled vases to enjoy early blooms.