Gardener's Calendar for February

Dave guides you through the tasks you can perform in February to promote the health of your plants, indoors and out.

Hi! I am Dave Epstein and welcome to our February gardener’s calendar and of course February is still winter but the sun is getting higher in the sky. We are getting some more light and things are beginning to change a little bit. One of my favorite plants in the garden is a Witch-Hazel. Now, Witch-Hazels get kind of big. They can grow up to about 12 to15 feet so you want to place this somewhere where it has a lot to grow. I put mine right the side of the road and just a few weeks this will open up and begin to bud already. It is a little bit mild today so I can start to see one of the tiny little buds opening. February-March, times of the year when you get a lot of snow and some of that snow can be heavy and wet. It can weigh down branches. What you do not want to do is you do not want to be lifting these branches up from under the snow. Let it naturally melt. If you start clearing this, you are up to break branches. Go around and re-spray your Wilt Proof. This is the antidesiccant we talked about. So, you want to be spraying that on the plants because it is probably worn off if you did it in late November-early December and you can actually have a lot of winter damage during the February and March time frame. If you have moved some of those plants which do not like a lot of light inside you move them to a window which has a lot of sunshine, start moving them back to an east or a west facing window because the sun is getting stronger. So, that south window is going to start to get more and more sun over the next several weeks. If you did not tie up some of your trees and shrubs early on, you can still do it because some of the snows that we get in February and even in the March can be quite heavy so it is not a bad idea to tie this up in case you do get a heavy wet snow storm. This will help protect them from getting bent over. Another thing February might bring is actually some major limbs that get damaged during some of these heavier winter storms. It is a good if it is this large to call a professional. Take out some of the lower first before you take down the upper branch so that you limit the amount of damage to the shrubs that are underneath. Another thing you might want to be doing is reapplying your deer repellant because in the late winter-early spring, the leaves of course have not come out yet and the deer really will be browsing. Also inside, be careful about over-watering plants. Even though things will begin to grow a little bit, you can cause problems like over-watering. For example, take a look at this African Violet I have crown rot and unfortunately, this African Violet is history. It is always better to under-water than over-water. Come back every week for all of our hints, tips and help here at growingwisdom.com. And if you have a question, we will answer in 24 hours. Go to our garden chatter section, click there, check out all different subjects or start your own new subject. We love to answer your question. I am Dave Epstein.