February (2024)

Sow beets, caraway, celery, carrots, chard, chervil, chives, collards, cilantro (coriander), dill, endive, fennel, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuces, mustards, green onions, bulb onion sets, flat-leafed parsley, peas, white potatoes, radishes, shallots, spinaches, and turnips. Indoors, start eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes as a promise to yourself that warm times are truly coming.

Place white potatoes in a four-inch-deep trench dug well with compost, and cover the cut-and-calloused pieces or small whole tubers with more compost to the original soil level. Water lightly, just to settle the soil close to the seed pieces. Too much clayey soil will rot them.

When choosing carrot varieties, consider the heaviness of your soil, and sow short stubby carrots in heavy clay soils, and longer tapered ones in looser sandy soil. The long stringy tips of the tap roots will grow four to six inches further down than the thicker edible portion. Sow them where they’ll mature so those stringy tap roots can grow straight down in soil from which all rocks have been removed. Be aware that they may take a good three weeks to germinate.

Distributing small seeds evenly when sowing can be tricky. A lead pencil provides two approaches. For smaller seeds, moisten the lead-end, stick it into the seed packet to pick up one or two seeds, and move them to the rooting medium. For slightly larger seeds, use the wet eraser-end. A length of wet string also helps for thick sowing--dip it into the seeds and place it on the rooting medium, string and all. The seeds will sprout around the seed, and the string will rot away.

Damping off of seedlings can be cured by watering several times with chamomile tea. Steep one tablespoon of dried chamomile in six cups of boiling water. Cool to lukewarm before using.

Transplant artichoke and asparagus crowns and rhubarb rhizomes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, horseradish, kale, leeks, lettuce, onions, peas, and spinach. If the soil is still waterlogged, gently dig the hole, position the plant, and loosely gather the soil around the plant's roots. Don't press the soil. Water just enough to "melt" the soil particles closely around the roots. This will result in the least compaction of the soil and allow lots of open pore space for roots to grow once the water drains.

One technique to assure sturdy tomato plants from seeds started indoors uses quart-size plastic food storage bags. Folding the bags into square boxes allows several bags to fit together as a group in a square drip tray. Also, each plant's root system is concentrated in blocks that are easy to transplant into the garden. To prepare each bag, fold the bottom two corners under to meet, point to point, and tape them in place. Clip the four new corners for drainage.

Transplant each two-inch tall seedling into its own bag. Fold down the top of each bag to just above the soil level of the plant. Pack each together in the drip tray, and place the tray in a bright but cool area. As the plants grow, add more soil every few days up to the top two leaves, pulling up the sides of the bag as necessary. Water and feed as usual. Turn the whole tray every day or so so that the plants grow straight. The resulting transplants often have half-inch sturdy stems.

Two main planting techniques will encourage roots to form along the length of the buried stem. The upright deep-planting method is generally chosen by gardeners in areas with warm springs and summers and those who have loose soils in raised beds. The horizontal planting method is more useful for gardens with cooler springs and summers and soils that are heavy.

For deep planting into the garden, cut open the bottom of the bag, and set the plant and its entire root system into an eight-inch-deep hole deep enough to bury the plant up to its top set of leaves. Slip the bag up and out of the hole over the plant. Fill in the hole with soil, and pull extra soil into a berm several inches out from the plant.

For horizontal planting, also cut open the bottom of the bag, but turn the plant on its side and gently urge it out so it's laying down sideways in a three- inch-deep trench long enough to accommodate the root section and half of the plant stem. Gently bend the plant's top two leaves up above the soil surface. Fill in the hole with soil, and pull extra soil into a berm several inches out from the plant.

Fill the berms in with water three times to make sure all the soil is thoroughly moistened. The third time, use a half-strength solution of a balanced complete fertilizer such as 10-10-10. "Balanced" means all the N-P-K numbers are the same. "Complete" means that there is at least some of each N, P, and K; none of the numbers is a zero, such as 0-10-10.

This is the last month to plant bareroot fruit and nut trees, berries, grapes, and vines. It's the best time to plant strawberries, so they can grow well before the weather warms and they put out blossoms.

Feed established deciduous fruit trees about three weeks before you expect them to bloom.

To prevent sunburn damage--which invites borers and other critters--paint exposed trunks and large limbs with off-white matte interior latex paint mixed half and half with water. Although it seems counter-intuitive, you must use water-based interior paint on the outdoor trees because oil-based exterior paint will suffocate the trees!

Apply the last dormant spray before mid-month. The precise timing of this application is critical--before the buds swell is too early, and after the blossoms open is too late. The ideal time is when the buds are swollen but don't yet show color. Once the buds open, the damage has already been done.

To lessen brown rot, follow up this spraying with another when three-fourths of the petals have fallen.

tSow ageratums, alyssum, asters, baby-blue-eyes, baby's breath, bachelor's buttons (cornflower), calendulas, campanulas (canterbury bells), candytuft, carnations, clarkias (godetia), coreopsis, columbines, coralbells, cosmos, African daisies (gazania) and Shasta daisies, delphiniums, dianthus, forget-me-nots, foxgloves, hollyhocks, impatiens, larkspur, linaria, lobelia, lunaria (honesty, money plant, silver dollar plant), lupines, marigolds, morning glories, nasturtiums, nemesia, pansies, petunias, phlox, California and Shirley poppies, salvia, scabiosa (pincushion flower), snapdragons, stocks, strawflowers (helichrysum), sweet peas, sweet williams, verbena, violas, and wildflowers.

Transplant these (except California poppies and wildflowers) and azaleas, bleeding hearts, camellias, cinerarias, chrysanthemums, coreopsis, dusty miller, euryops, Australian fuchsias, gardenias, gaillardias, geraniums, gerberas, helleborus (Christmas or Easter rose), Iceland poppies, lavender, lupines, peonies, primroses, rhododendrons, bareroot roses, rudbekias (gloriosa daisy, coneflower, black-eyed susan), verbenas, violets and deciduous shade trees.

Plant bulbs for spring and early summer blooms--including achimenes, agapanthus, amaryllis, tuberous begonias, caladiums, calla lilies, canna lilies, colchic*ms, dahlias, daffodils, daylilies, gladiolus, bearded and Dutch iris, sternbergias, tigridias, and tuberoses. For continuous spring bloom later this spring, plant a selection of anemones, gladiolus, ranunculus, and tigridias every two weeks through March.

Amaryllis that's just finished blooming can be grown as an evergreen plant, indoors or out, through the fall, and encouraged to bloom again next winter. The bloomed-out stalk can be cut off about an inch above where it emerges from the bulb or allowed to dry up naturally--this allows the plant to reabsorb the energy and store it for the next bloom. Set the plant in a warm, sunny place, water generously, and fertilize regularly through August. Then, let the plant rest a bit, with no fertilizer and only enough moisture to keep the soil barely moist. Be sure to not let the plant dry out at any time, however, or the growth cycle will be upset and perhaps skip or delay the next round of bloom. In September, move the plant to a spot that's sunny but where daytime temperatures are in the 70s and nighttime temperatures are above 55. Begin watering and fertilizing--with a high phosphorus and high-potash food (the last two numbers of the N-P-K trio)--and watch for buds. You may even have two or three separate bloom stalks.

Gently prune fuchsias to remove long leafless stringers before they break into leaf. However, hold off on heavy pruning until after they've completely leafed out in another month or so, to be certain you're not clipping off more than was damaged by frost.

For indoor bouquets, cut a few branches of almond, cherry, crabapple, deutzia, forsythia, honeysuckle, peach, pear, plum, puss*willow, quince, redbud, spiraea, weigela, and other spring- blooming deciduous shrubs and trees. Force blooms on these branches by placing them in warm (70-80 degree) water in a cool, humid area with moderate light for a week before moving them indoors to bloom. Delay major pruning of these and other spring-blooming shrubs until after they finish blooming, or you'll remove the flower buds that set last fall.

Lilac's first bloom and honeysuckle's first red berries are cues to potential grasshopper populations. If immature grasshoppers are present in the garden at this time, you have two or three weeks to control them before they grow into destructive adults that will lay eggs for bigger and bigger populations throughout the spring and summer.

Feed groundcovers, shrubs, roses, perennials, and trees with slow-release food (compost, bone meal, cottonseed meal, blood meal, or well-rotted manure) to provide plants with consistent and gradual nutrition throughout the season.

Keep lawns mowed. Slow growth doesn't mean mowing isn't needed. The grass will go into shock if more than 25 percent of its new growth is mowed at one time. Keep mower blades sharp--raggedly-cut grass blades die back and invite diseases.