There are plenty of gardening projects and tasks to stay busy indoors and outside from nurturing houseplants and feathered friends to shaping up shrubs and starting seeds.
MONTHLY GUIDE
February Gardening Checklist
indoor care
houseplants
- Rotate houseplants every two weeks to promote even growth.
- Continue to keep houseplants on the drier side of watering during winter. Overwatering “kills with kindness”.
- Houseplants are still resting/dormant. Refrain from fertilizing them until next month.
- Avoid transplanting houseplants until they start to perk-up and actively grow, usually next month.
- Mist houseplants regularly to raise humidity or place them on a humidity tray.
- Inspect houseplants regularly for unusual spots, webbing or scale. Look on both tops and bottoms of their leaves.
Add to your collection
Winter Flowering Houseplants
Celebrate Valentine’s Day with winter flowering houseplants such as gerbera daisies, calla lilies & flamingo flower. Cyclamen & primrose also bloom naturally this time of year, adding a burst of cheerful colors indoors!
Looking for new foliage houseplants? Grow some air purifying houseplants such as snake plants, moth orchids, philodendron and spider plants.
Shop Houseplants
National Bird Feeding Month
Backyard Birding
February is National Bird Feeding month! Send some love to your feathered friends by keeping feeders full. Providing suet and seed cakes for the birds this month is a beneficial and welcome treat.
Ways to support our Northeast Ohio winter birds:
- Clean bird feeders about every two weeks with a 10% bleach solution. Refill after they have dried thoroughly.
- Many winter songbirds enjoy Black oil sunflower seeds. It’s a meal that is full of energy to help them stay warm.
- Attract finches and pine siskins with a thistle seed feeder or a thistle sock/sack.
- If seed hulls are creating a mess around your feeders, try using peanut pieces or sunflower chips.
Seed Starting
indoors
- Start your garden wish list and purchase seeds.
- Gather seed starting materials: seed starter soilless mix, sanitized pots/flats, tags, spray mister, plastic domes or wrap and seeds.
- Start cold crop seeds indoors mid-month! This includes lettuce, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale and onions.
- If interested in growing more herbs, start chives, cilantro, dill, fennel, sage and thyme from seed later in the month.
February Tasks
Outdoor Gardening
- Apply Wilt Stop® to azaleas, rhododendrons, hollies and andromeda, on a mild day.
- While the soil is frozen, clean up the spent plants, dead foliage, branches, and debris in the garden beds and landscape. Toss them in the compost pile.
- Replant frost heaved perennials or place additional mulch around them to protect them from drying out.
- Ensure winter protection materials, (burlap and mulch), are still in place for hydrangeas and roses, restore if not.
- Inspect stored bulbs; throw away any that are rotting, mushy or dried up.
what to prune
in the garden
- Before pruning anything in the garden, be sure to clean, sharpen and sanitize pruning tools now, (pruners, loppers, saws, etc.), so they are ready to use.
- Remove winter damaged, diseased or dead tree and shrub branches.
- Prune to shape the plant, produce better growth, and to develop a stronger structure. Remove weak, suckering, crossing growth including vertical growing water sprouts.
- Avoid pruning spring blooming shrubs until after they are finished blooming such as azaleas, rhododendrons, magnolias, lilacs, etc., unless they are damaged, diseased or dead.
- While pruning, cut some Forsythia branches to force into bloom indoors. Place them in a water filled vase in a cool room away from direct sunlight and heater vents. They will flower within two weeks!
MONTHLY GUIDE
best foot forward
February brings an excellent opportunity to discover your next beautiful houseplants, find the best feeder and food for the birds, pruning trees and shrubs, or starting to grow your favorite veggies from seed.
We are so excited to help out at any of our ten locations with any questions, guidance, or materials you may need to begin.
View Our February Checklist