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February To Do List

frogfruit flowers

Plant: ornamental & wildlife

  • Annual transplants: pansies, violas, calendula (wildlife plant), snapdragon, stock, larkspur, ornamental kale & cabbage, bluebonnet transplants, poppies. Transplants are preferred over seeds at this point.
  • Evergreen perennials & vines
  • Trees, shrubs, roses
  • Evergreen groundcovers like monkey grass, liriope, creeping germander, frogfruit

Plant: herbs

  • Calendula, chervil, cilantro, chives, dill, parsley, feverfew, oregano, sorrel, thyme, garlic chives
  • Protect cilantro and chives in below freezing weather.

Plant: food crops

Plant: fruit

  • Apples, peaches, pecans, pears, pomegranates, persimmons, figs, almonds, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries

Prune

  • Roses
  • Prune dormant perennials and ornamental (clumping) grasses.
  • Prune grapes, fruit trees, blackberries
  • Cut asters and chrysanthemums to rosettes
  • Late month: prune woody salvias as much as ⅔ to encourage new growth
  • Trees: DO NOT prune red oaks and live oaks unless damaged. Spray immediately with clear varnish.
  • No need to apply pruning paint to other trees
  • Avoid topping crape myrtles: simply remove sprouts or entire limbs at the trunk.
  • Prune rosemary and oregano
  • Late month: prune evergreen shrubs as they start to set new growth

Divide/Move

  • Dormant perennials, roses, shrubs and trees. This is the best time to move plants!

Prep

  • Add compost to vegetable gardens along with organic fertilizer in prep for another round of winter vegetables
  • Soil test

Fertilize

  • Roses
  • Iris. Use a fertilizer with a higher middle number (phosphorus)
  • Add compost to beds as you cut back dormant perennials. Fertilize with slow-release granular late in the month or as dormant perennials leaf out
  • Add compost around trees and fertilize. Be sure to dig out grass several feet from the trunk, ideally to the drip line of the tree canopy.

Other tasks

  • Keep floating row cover available; avoid covering plants with plastic
  • Spray fruit trees with dormant oil to control overwintering scale, plum curculio and other pests.
  • WEED!

Tips

  • When planting, dig hole twice as wide as root ball but no deeper than where it sits in the pot.
  • Backfill and water until it sinks in.
  • Continue filling in.
  • Water again until it sinks in and pack the soil down.
  • Mulch.

Tips for all 12 months

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