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.
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