Edible Gardening

Why FEBRUARY Is The MOST IMPORTANT Month In Gardening: Start NOW!



In this video, I share why February is the most important month in gardening. While still winter, February is where we begin the most essential gardening tasks. If you delay, you may have smaller harvests, more weed problems, more pest problems and less healthy plants! I share 5 essential garden tasks to start now, even if it’s still cold out!

All My Fruit Tree Pruning Videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1gY7BoYBGIGMlTTezwO0A0mk0QL_CqQI&si=ifqb_xF7rkNgnHEV
How To Amend Garden Beds: https://youtu.be/eL-pXcX7ODk?si=C2j2SVNzeb_GqPjp
How To Amend Container Gardens: https://youtu.be/m-fvstZY-FY?si=lFMqSPzlBQVv2HPD

TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 The Key To Successful Gardening
1:10 Reason #1: Starting Seeds
2:44 Reason #2: Planting Fruit Trees
4:33 Reason #3: Ordering Seeds & Trees
5:22 Where To Buy Fruit Trees
6:17 Where To Buy Seeds
6:41 Reason #4: Pruning Fruit Trees
8:59 Reason #5: Amending Garden Soil
11:39 Adventures With Dale

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If you have any questions about starting a vegetable garden or how to plant fruit trees, want to know about the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!
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ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8B

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© The Millennial Gardener

#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #vegetablegardening #fruittrees

What’s growing on gardeners it’s Sunday January 28th and it is a shockingly gorgeous winter afternoon here on the Southeastern coast of North Carolina it may feel like spring is a million miles away but on today’s video I’m going to share with you exactly why February yes February is the most important month in

All of gardening so if you’re at all thinking about starting a vegetable garden this year let your spring begin right now if you’re new to the Channel Please Subscribe and hit the to receive new video notifications and check out our Amazon store and spreadshop links in the video description for everything I

Use in my garden and awesome custom designed to power another gear your support is greatly appreciated in order to be a successful Gardener you have to be a Seer the current conditions in our garden right now are irrelevant to be a great Gardener you have to constantly

Look 6 to 8 weeks into the future those are the conditions that we are most concerned about right now and that is exactly why February is the most important month and all of gardening here in the Northern Hemisphere and by the way for the folks watching this in the southern hemisphere your February

Equivalent would be August that is your Prime Time gardening month reason number one why February is the most important month in gardening is because this is when we are going to sew most of our seeds the ground unth falls in the overwhelming majority of the United States during February so if you’re

Growing any root crops like carrots beets radishes turnips now in February is when you’re going to at some point sew those seeds also if you’re going to plant any Frost tolerant but heat sensitive vegetables out into your garden like lettuce or brasas you generally have to get them in at some

Point in February because those plants can tolerate a frost but they don’t like the heat the heat stresses them out and causes them to bolt and go to seed so most of us are going to need to harvest those crops in May or June before it

Gets too hot and of course February is going to be when we start our favorite warm season transplants indoors things like tomatoes peppers eggplant basil these things take about 6 to 8 weeks to grow into mature transplants so they also need germination time so by the

Time you place that seed into a seed tray it’s probably not going to be ready to go out into your garden for about 8 weeks most of us in the United States will be transplanting our warm weather vegetables out in into our garden sometime between April 1st and May 1st

So if you want those crops to be ready as fullsize mature transplants to go out into your garden you are going to want to start those seeds indoors probably at some point in the month of February reason number two why February is the most important month in all of gardening

Is because now is when we are going to get and plant most of our be root fruit trees big box stores like Home Depot Lowe’s Etc are going to start getting their dormant deciduous fruit trees in at this time of the year and if you’re

Like me and you mail order most of your fruit trees bare root you are going to start receiving them probably pretty soon now the best time to plant fruit trees that are dormant and bare root besides the fall is actually in the spring right after the ground Falls and

For most of us that is going to be in February that’s because we want to plant those trees before they wake up when they’re not undergoing any any kind of stress that way they will wake up in ground exactly where they want to be for

Them to take off if you wait for these fruit trees to wake up they will go through a period of transplant shock and that can slow them down so when you plant them in early spring or late winter when the ground is warm enough finally they will take off and

Immediately start rooting in the ground unaware of the transplant shock and that is how you can get a nice big jump start in the season so if you’re like me and you ordered new fruit trees make sure you get them in ground in February provided your ground has thawed by then

One additional caveat some websites won’t ship fruit trees until later into the month of February so if you’re under a delayed shipping because of where you live and say you don’t get your fruit trees until March just plant them as soon as you get them don’t stress out

Because you didn’t get them in the ground in February they will still arrive dormant so just do the best that you can work with the shipper’s schedule and once you get it as long as your ground is onth thaal just get it in the ground in the right position as soon as

You can before the fruit trees wake up reason number three why February is the most important month in all of gardening is it is your last chance to order seeds and fruit trees for the new year believe it or not online websites start stocking be root fruit trees and new seeds for

The new season as early as November often around Thanksgiving and me personally I order all of my seeds and fruit trees by Christmas in order to get the best selection possible if you haven’t ordered your seeds and fruit trees yet for the new season you are

Running out of time and a lot of items may be out of stock by now especially the new hottest and most popular varieties so if you haven’t done that yet please use this as a motivator to get up and start looking at some of your favorite websites to order seeds and

Fruit trees I’ve put together a list of all different nurseries that I’ve purchased from or that I know are reputable companies to give you all a good place to start one green world just fruits and Exotics bay laurel Nursery edible landscaping Cummins Nursery Burnt Ridge Nursery Stark Brothers Lois

Restoring Eden Four Winds Growers peaceful Heritage Nursery bottoms nursery plant me green plantogram Bob Wells Nursery rree Nursery Willis Orchard company trees of antiquity and my go-to source of citrus trees which is McKenzie farms in Scranton South Carolina with Stan McKenzie you’ll have to place your order over the phone but

He is my go-to guy for citrus and please this is not an exhaustive list this is everything that I could come up with brainstorming so I apologize to any of the great nurseries out there that I may have overlooked or that I’m not aware of but this should give you a really good

Place to start if you like to know where I like ordering seed my favorite places to order seed are Victory seeds Baker Creek Southern Exposure tomato Growers territorial seed and I’ve also had good luck ordering from burpee and wild boore farms however if you’d like to support

Some fellow YouTubers you can also buy seed from hos tools Mi Gardener and I’m sure there are countless other great companies out there that you can support reason number four why February is the most important month in all of gardening is now is the prime time to prune our

Deciduous fruit trees now the reasons why we have to prune our deciduous fruit trees are twofold number one we want to control the size because we don’t want want giant trees in our backyard and number two we want to increase fruit production and in order to increase

Fruit production you want to tip your deciduous fruit trees which just means to basically cut off the growth tips at calculated points you have to understand that fruit trees it’s not in their nature to fruit as heavily as possible rather they only need to produce as much

Fruit as possible to feel that they reproduced adequately for the new season but most of their energy naturally is going to grow up into Vigor which means you’re going to get mediocre production on huge trees if you don’t adequately prune them so by cutting them back each

Season you will not only have a smaller tree but a more productive tree so you will have a tree that takes up a smaller footprint in your yard and actually gives you more fruit out of the deal now that we are in Peak winter it is

Ultimately the best time of the year to prune our deciduous fruit trees like apples peaches pons figs plums etc etc etc that’s because the trees are in total dorcy right now there’s very limited sap flow to the branches so cutting them effectively is very low to

No stress if you wait for the sap flow to return and for the trees to start budding if you prune them then it’s basically the surgical equivalent to uh performing surgery on somebody not on anesthesia when you do it like this and they’re fully dormant it’s like performing surgery on a person that’s

Knocked out and nice and calm so it’s a lot lower stress and the recovery will happen much more quickly with far fewer downsides so now that we’re right in the beginning of February you will be surprised how quickly these fruit trees will start waking up so don’t miss that

Opportunity to prune them all when they are in Peak dormy and if you have any questions about pruning various species of fruit trees I will link down into the video description a playlist where I’ve archived and organized all of the different pruning tutorials that I have

Made over the the years and the fifth reason why February is the most important month in all of gardening is now is the time to amend our garden beds if we haven’t already done so that is because most soil amendments will take a few weeks up to a month maybe even a

Little bit more if they’re organic to break down so generally speaking you want to amend your garden soil after it has thawed immediately after it is thawed that way you give yourself a Solid 4 to 6 weeks for whatever you amend the soil with to break down and

Those amendments can be like kitchen scraps that you bury underneath the garden soil it could be things like alala pellets azomite any kind of organic fertilizer precursors that you may want to mix in and of course compost you want that to sit on the soil for a little bit also things like chicken

Manure horse manure cow manure any kind of manure that you have access to if you want to mix that in with your soil you need to give that time to to break down you can’t put hot fresh manure in the soil if you already have plants growing

In it you could burn up things and you also have a contamination risk that you have to be concerned about you don’t want manure anywhere in contact with your food if it is raw so keep all of these things in mind now over the years I have made many videos where I’ve

Showed you how to rehabilitate and rrif and reinvigorate existing garden beds whether they are raised beds like mine container gardens or uh just Earth beds and I will make sure to link down in the video description a few videos of interest that will help you if you’ve

Never done that before and that right there is why February is the most important month in all of gardening if you wait until it is officially spring to start your garden you were already too late you need to begin your garden at least 6 to 8 weeks early and look

Into the future if you haven’t done any of these things on this list yet I strongly recommend you use this video as motivation to get going going and let spring begin today if you follow through I promise you you will not regret it come the actual spring and into the

Summer when you’re having those wonderful harvests so everybody I sure hope you found this video helpful if you did please make sure to hit that like button subscribe to the channel and please ring that notification Bell so you’re notified when I release more videos like these if you’re curious

About any of the products that I use in my garden in real life I have them all linked Down Below in the Amazon storefront Link in the video description so expand the video description click on the Amazon link and you’ll see everything I use in real life and while

You’re there check out my spread shop for custom merch if you want to support the channel thank you all so much for watching and I hope to see all of you again on the next video this is a puzzle for Dale what does this have treats in it yep okay set

It down let’s see this is brand new he’s never seen this before there he is Mr stinker good put it down okay so you rotate it to find the treats this is too easy for him hey it took Mom a while to put it together yeah but

Gaale is the smartest one in the house so there he Goes this guy really got it made oh yeah he figured out how to push them this isn’t fair with his nose oh that’s cheating strong harmed it he just pulls it right off okay Mr tough guy Mr muscle butt all right Dale you got them all they are all empty and he

Did them all by himself he’s such a smart boy this puzzle was too easy we got to get him the advanced model

48 Comments

  1. If you enjoyed this video, please “Like” it and share it to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching😊 TIMESTAMPS here:
    0:00 The Key To Successful Gardening
    1:10 Reason #1: Starting Seeds
    2:44 Reason #2: Planting Fruit Trees
    4:33 Reason #3: Ordering Seeds & Trees
    5:22 Where To Buy Fruit Trees
    6:17 Where To Buy Seeds
    6:41 Reason #4: Pruning Fruit Trees
    8:59 Reason #5: Amending Garden Soil
    11:39 Adventures With Dale

  2. I’m in Ohio & I’ve got my onions, peppers, tomatoes, & some herbs started indoors now. I’m excited for this! I get to play in the dirt!!!

  3. It's February 3rd and I've been planning my Pennsylvania garden since December. I know for next year to start buying my plants/seeds in fall, great tip! This year, most of the seeds I plant will be ones that I've already owned from last year.

  4. Next time just say pause the video and screenshot the list on the screen instead of reading them all

  5. I’m currently 8a and next week I see 50s and 60s should I be sowing my peas outside next week or too soon?!

  6. I can't plant out summer crops until after mothers Day, but it's an awesome video. Just a momth too soon for our area. Will keep in mind for March.

  7. We have been following your videos the last year and really enjoy them. Would you happen to have a list available of the name brands of the varieties and planting times of the vegetables that you grow? Thanks, your neighbor in Morehead City NC.

  8. Well said: You have to look weeks into the future. I always start my seedlings first week in January in my shop. I live in central California.

  9. Did somebody say fig cuttings??? I’m so in. Let us know how we order them.
    By the way I’m in sunny California ( but we are having a huge rain storm right now).
    I would take any cutting you think would be good for northern cali.
    Love dale’s adventures so much too.

  10. I love all your gardening channels and this goes for the entire YouTube community and other gardeners but you really got to stop stereotyping what is important now which month because right now is February and if I listen to you, I’d be digging through a frozen permafrost 716 is still frozen 😩🤏🏿😕👹

  11. As someone who's new to southeastern NC, I really appreciate you and your content. Keep it up yo

  12. You’re in shorts. We still have snow on the ground. We can’t plant out here till mother’s day. MI

  13. Great video! I watched your video on pruning and you said things like orange trees to prune after harvest. I am in zone 9a and my oranges looked ready for a while before I cut them all off in Jan(all 8 on a big tree). Do you think I should prune as soon as the first turns orange? They were probably orange for a month before I cut them before a cold snap. Again, thank you sooooo much!!!! New to this and couldn't do it without you 😊

  14. Im seeing butter cups and other spring flowers pop up .but my green house is full of plants i tried to save from summer

  15. Hello. I’m moving to southern eastern NC. Wondering if you grow garlic? Coming from Long Island NY, so it’s gong to be an adjustment. I’m actually excited about the extended season. 😅

  16. I’m new to gardening. I haven’t even planted anything yet…ever! 😮 I can look at seed packets and charts for a lot of information, but I can’t find anything that tells me how long I can expect to harvest a particular plant.

  17. We live south of Monkey Junction in an HOA regulated neighborhood. My husband is one of your loyal followers. As a literal square foot gardener, he’s created a “farm” in our fenced back yard. We thought that you might want to see it. We have spent years composting and keeping seeds where their ancestors roamed.

    Recently, I was cutting up a tomato that was sitting on the counter for some time. When I cut it, I thought that the tomato had worms. Further inspection showed that the white “worms” were actually sprouted seeds. I scooped them out of the tomato, and James planted the sprouts. They are doing well under our garage grow light.

    We would like to invite you over to see our square foot base.

    How can we make this happen?
    Becky and James Mills (Beau Rivage).

  18. I’m not sure if you check your messages…I am trying to find fig cuttings that would work for NE Georgia.

  19. Hi I am the New Girl on your Vlohg. We are moving in just ovrr 3 years.We have so many Pots. All our Shrubs. Flowers. Plants are in Pots. We want to buy some Fruit Trees i would like to put them in Pots until we move Would the Trees be ok until we plant them on our much Larger Land when we move. Wr hope to buy a Home with about 10 Acres. We have a lLarge family Grownup kids and Grandkids x.

  20. I'm in zone 7b, garden pH 8.5 (not good). What can I do about it?
    Can I prune my sister's apple tree?
    What would be some good survival garden plants?

  21. What’s growing on March? What are you growing and starting? What’s your update on your tomatoes? Keep us posted! 8a here in Virginia Beach!

  22. it is mid February here in nyc. My garden is still covered and not ready for planting. Should i use fungicide now or does that kill good fungi also? I have raised beds but my lawn next to it seems to have a fungus problem. I already lost a tree to it. or should i just treat the lawn?

  23. It's good to find a seed company that is as close to your area as possible to make sure those seeds will be friendly to your area.

  24. Up her in eastern Washington, February isn't a good time to try to plant anything.. ground is frozen solid and typically covered in snow.
    Though if my greenhouse was up and ready, I would be planting in that for sure.
    March.. is typically our 1st sowing month.

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