February in the Garden
By Lee Goins
Often in February there is a surprisingly warm day. Everybody sheds their
coats and puts a bounce in their step. The next day they hear a snow plow at
4 AM. But the brief warmup gets you thinking “what is there to do in
the landscape?”
Here are a few late winter ideas.
Check out your garden tools, patio furniture, window boxes etc. Paint, repair
or discard so you are ready to go when it’s really nice out!
It’s a good time to propagate some house plants. Abundant sunshine is
on its way!
Order Seeds! Hey that’s always fun. Try something new this year!
Prune decidous trees that need it. Remove dead or problem branches, crossing
branches and basal sprouts. Make sure you know the proper way to do a pruning
cut and get an arborist for the big jobs for safety and future health of the
tree. The ISA consumer site has great advice here. http://www.treesaregood.com/
Try forcing the bloom on some early spring flowering branches. Forsythia is
a common choice for this; but pussy willow, quince, spirea, and dogwood can
be forced forced to bloom also. It’s easy and gets you out in the garden
for few minutes! Gather your branches and when arranging them make slanted
cuts to help with water absorption. Put them in a vase and keep the water fresh,
changing it a couple times a week.
Contact your local landscape service now for any spring projects. In a few
weeks they are going to be very busy!
A garden center manager, writer, musician and webmaster; Lee Goins is often
called on as an expert in landscaping and gardening. Residents of Shelby County
Ohio have been bringing him pieces of trees, moldy leaves, and jars of bugs
for 8 years in spite of the well publicized knowledge he prefers chocolate.
His gardening help has been featured on TV, Radio, Newspapers and websites
like http://www.shelbylandscaping.com