February To Do List

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

• Artichokes, asparagus, onions, greens, lettuce, spinach, radish, carrots, beets, bok choy, collards, kale, peas, turnips, leeks, broccoli, shallot bulbs, cabbage
• Potatoes
• Get tomatoes and peppers to move to pots. Late month: plant if well protected from late freezes.
• Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Vegetable Planting Guides (Central Texas) http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis/home-landscape/edible-gardens/growing-vegetables/
  

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