Garden Tasks — February
Happy February! Here in Nashville, it’s still pretty much winter, but we will get warm, sunny days now and then this month. How lucky when one of these nice weather days lands on your day off from work. Take the opportunity to get outside and spend some time preparing your garden for upcoming spring planting. Plus, it makes those cold, wet nights a little less painful.
If you are just starting to think about gardening for the year, also check out the January tasks. It’s not too late to catch up on those, and then get started on the to-do list below.
PLANNING AND INFRASTRUCTURE
There is still time to sit down and consider the WHY, WHAT, HOW MUCH, WHERE, and WHEN of your garden. Get your diagrams and schedules ready for next month. Or better yet: schedule a garden planning consultation and I’ll walk you through each step.
Prepare your beds and soil. It’s time to build, purchase, or repair your raised beds and containers. Once beds are in good shape, fill with quality soil or add a couple of inches of compost to the top of your garden soil if you didn’t do this last fall.
Shopping! Check over your garden gear. Do you need tools, trellises, seeds, or any other supplies for the coming growing season? Garden centers are starting to stock up on these items and you should get what you need before they run out.
Write down everything you need or need to do in your garden journal.
FOOD
If you are starting seeds indoors (and no one says you have to!), this is the month to sow broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, spinach, lettuce, onions, leeks, peppers, eggplant, and artichokes.
Keep a close eye on any seeds you started last month. Are they outgrowing their pots? If so, transplant them into bigger pots and make sure to note this in your garden journal. Perhaps you’ll want to hold off a couple of weeks on starting them next year. It’s always a guessing game on when the weather will be right for transplanting, but the more information you collect over the years, the better chance you have of guessing right.
FLOWERS
Take a look at your perennial flowers, if they are starting to put on new growth, pull the mulch way from the crown of the plant.
Here come the bulbs! Crocus, daffodils, and hyacinth will be the first blooms from your spring bulbs. Enjoy their bright color and sweet scent as much as possible this month. It’s been a long wait. After the blooms fade, you may cut the flower stems, but be sure to let the leaves the fully mature and die back naturally so that they can store up energy in their bulbs for next year.
You can direct sow poppies, nigella, bachelor buttons, pincushion flower, strawflower, foxgloves, snapdragons, rudbeckia, and bells of Ireland in the middle of February in Nashville.
FEELINGS
If you have started seeds indoors, be sure to check on them every day as they can dry out quickly. Of course, you also don’t want to over-water them, and so begins the delicate daily balance of tending your plants. Start out with the right mindset: slow down, observe closely, learn from mistakes, and start bouncing back from disappointments. One of the best things that can happen to you in February is to have a few seedlings die. It’s a good reminder that no garden season goes perfectly, no matter how well you plan or high you hope. We garden anyway.
Bonus: weeding is an incredibly satisfying way to spend an hour on a sunny day.
