February Tip of the Month from Linda Dodds, Master Gardener and Fox Islander
Holy Hawaiian Holiday! While I was off checking out the local flora in Hawaii and Tahiti just for this monthly tip, the rest of you had to deal with the occasionally unseasonably harsh winter snow storm. I came back to some broken limbs off my magnolia tree but will soon be out there cutting the broken branches back to a major limb. Broken branches should never be cut off in the middle of a limb as that is not pruning, but it is complete mutilation of the entire tree! In fact, I have written letters to the local newspaper about the mutilation practices of city pruners. If only they understood that what they were doing was not good practices of tree grooming, but a source for rot and pests to enter the trees and bushes and eventually kill or or weaken them.
Since the cold weather is probably not over, do protect any tender plants and trees in your yard. I found even moving potted plants against the house and under the eves gives them some protection as the warmth of the house, keeps them quite a bit warmer. Even my geraniums survived the cold that way. And if we should get another snow storm, knock the snow off evergreen bushes and trees with a broom as the snow can add a lot of weight and break the branches off in the middle of a limb as it did to my magnolia.
February should bring enough warmth so that if you plant peas and even sweet peas, they should germinate and start growing. It may also be warm enough to plant spinach this month but be sure your beds are not too soggy first. To test to see if the soil can be turned over, take a handful of dirt and give it a squeeze. If water oozes from your hand, do not plant yet but instead wait until the soil crumbles without oozing water. Both peas and spinach are cool weather plants and if planted correctly at the right time can start producing long before most other vegetable plants do.
Wait until the end of the month before pruning roses and once leaves start forming on hydrangeas, they can be cut back also.
The few plants that seem to thrive in cool weather are weeds and that means especially chick weed. Pull those varmints any and all times and you will be so happy come spring that you did so. In fact, pulling weeds now can save you hours and hours of work this summer as they will never have a chance to bloom and reseed throughout the year.
If you are interesting in seeing some photos of blooming plants on the Hawaiian and Tahitian Islands, check out my blog site at Foxisland gardener on posterous.com.
And do not forget the biggest gardening event of the year is the NW Flower and Show at the Seattle Convention Center later on this month. Watch for the dates in the paper and make a special trip to get your gardening year off with a lot of great ideas.
Spring is just around the corner, so get yourselves geared up for some heavy duty planning for additions to your garden this year. Spring…Here we come!