Busy Busy Gardening Month – February

Busy Busy Gardening Month – February – In this video I go over the things we are doing in the garden during the month of February. It is a busy month for us in the garden.

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welcome to Hort tube my name is jum putam this is the February Garden checklist video we do one of these each month and I’ve been doing these for a couple of years kind of streamlined them in the last year or so down to just exactly what we’re doing in our garden here in Raleigh North Carolina Zone 7B this is about .19 Acres very small lot if you haven’t followed along there’s a playlist called new house uh where I’ve go through the entire progress of starting from the beginning of this Garden until now let’s jump right into what we’ll be doing here in February I plant pretty much 12 months out of the year uh so you know here here in Raleigh the ground really never freezes you know we might get a little Frozen crust on top of the ground for a few days during the winter but other than that the ground’s pretty workable year round here so I don’t think about it as much as U you know people put a lot of stock in what is the best month to plant again if I if the ground’s workable and I’m going to be around to care for it and watch out for it I’ll plant whenever I am careful this time of year to make make sure that I’m not planting plants that are way way ahead of my area meaning that the garden center Box Store wherever you’re getting plants even mail order if it comes in the mail and it’s it’s further ahead of everything else that’s in your landscape sometimes I’ll wait and plant those things just because you know if this this abilia has been sitting outside here uh in the garden all winter long I would have no problem whatsoever putting this plant in the ground it’s completely acclimated uh to our weather conditions through this winter and it’s right in line with everything that’s in the landscape but if this came from the Gulf Coast into my garden center and I bought it and it was just completely covered in New Growth maybe even had a flower or two on it that’s the kind of plant that’s going to be vulnerable to a late you know to to any kind of freeze or Frost so keep that in mind um as long as the plant is seems acclimated if it’s asleep when it’s supposed to be asleep put it in the ground as long as the ground is uh is workable so we’re going to really be concentrating this spring on ground cover we put a lot of shrubs in this is most mostly been a shrub channel the entire time I’ve had this channel because that’s what I grew in my nursery and all the original most of the original videos were about shrubs and you know shrubs are kind of my thing we’ve got about as many shrubs and narrow trees as we can put into this landscape and at this point I really want to save on maintenance and the price of mulch and so we’re going to be concentrating a lot on ground covers and so that’ll be part of the content uh during the Spring season trying to get kind of the rest of the ground covered so we’re not having you know again when we mulch it’ll be you know very very little one thing that might be available in your area are some pansies violas snapdragons dianthus some of the very early blooming or winter flowering uh annuals uh we’ve got some here’s some violas that we planted earlier in the fall they’ve been in the ground for a little while they’re the roots are pretty well established on these so they’ll they’ll take off pretty quick as it warms up this spring but they’re certainly available probably at a garden center near you and they’ll last until about here in the South um until about Jun you know first of June mid June something like that and then they’ll burn out if that’s worth it to you to plug a few things into a container here in February and March and enjoy some color a couple months earlier than some other things will be up in the landscape they’re probably available so by the time you see this video we will have already seated on our light rack inside are cool seasoned vegetables that we do um that we start early inside so that’s going to be things like broccoli cauliflower brussel sprouts uh some of our lettuce uh will start inside just to extend That season those things won’t go in the ground until about March but we do seed them in early in early February we’ve still got a couple types of kale that have survived the winter and we can still Harvest from these as we go there’s some Garden prep though that needs to be done out here and so while we’re waiting for those vegetables that we started from seed in the house to be ready we’ll get in here into the vegetable garden we’ll get out any weeds that we have we’ll put down a fresh layer of compost and just generally be ready to plant those things when those things come out and get acclimated to the outdoors the things that we preceeded uh the the garden will be ready for us to our direct seeding things and that would be things like uh peas um col Robie beets carrots you know root vegetables and and peas and beans those things we direct seed uh into the ground we also have our kale and a couple of other things as well that we do just direct seated out here but again we use the month of February to weed prep it get ready for it because we’re going to have our cool season crops going at the beginning of March then we’ll be starting our summer crops inside in the 1 of March and those will go in right behind these about middle of April and so the garden will be full so we’re going to use February as prep time so you may have noticed when I was over in the vegetable garden that there’s a plastic fence around it that’s a it’s actually a 7ot tall deer fence but it’s folded over so it’s only 3 and 1/2 ft tall and it surrounds that space to keep rabbits out of it the rabbits don’t mess with the summer garden very much you know they they tend not to like Peppers but they do uh they do in fact love every leafy green and so you know you got to think through that if you put if you’re putting leafy greens in they either need to be in raised beds or you need to have some sort of barrier to prevent the uh to prevent the rabbits from getting to them when you visit garden centers box stores wherever you right now you’ll probably see strawberries asparagus seed potatoes lots and lots of different AA different edible things that you can add to your garden probably uh one of the best times of year to buy fruit trees and you know just all kinds of edible plants uh in general you may purchase the purchase them and then look up for your area when you would be putting those things in the ground I don’t want to sit here on this you know Zone 7B and Raleigh and tell you the day that you should be putting those things in the ground but I will tell you you probably should acquire them if you want them um you know fairly early on and then again look up you know the best time for in your area to put those things uh in the ground so let’s jump to All Things fertilizer sometime during the month of February I’ll be fertilizing the entire Garden out here and so that includes the vegetable garden because we’re prepping it uh for all of our cool season vegetables to go in I just use an organic fertilizer I’ll talk about that in the video but I don’t care what it is if it’s ground cover shrub tree edible thing thing container thing whatever it is I throw out the same fertilizer on it again very low low amount of fertilizer most of the feeding that’s going on in this Garden is from mulch talk about mulch uh coming up in just a minute because that’s another thing we’re doing in February the only things that I’ll repeat fertiliz will be things like the vegetable garden and so uh we’ll fertilize it here as we prep it our cool season vegetables will go in sometime you know when we put the summer vegetables in I’ll probably throw out another application our annual borders where we have like I showed you the pansies violas penas any of our summer flowers that go in during the summer we will repeat fertiliz but for the most part there’s very little fertilizer going into this landscape and it will almost 90% of the fertilizing will be done in the month of February in a video so some of these monthly videos we do like in the summer or in the late fall early winter are just a lot of prep and getting ready and thinking about the future and writing things down and those kinds of things February is ready to roll I mean February will be is probably February into mid-march are probably the two the busiest time of the year uh in the garden for me we leave the leaves on the ground out here uh from the trees and I I want to mulch over the top of them and so we need to get the leaves off the path the leaves off any Turf areas the leaves off any place we don’t want leaves before we put that mulch cap on a lot of other things we want to do too before we mulch we want to go through and do any edging we’re going to going to do February is a great time you know to to reedge beds because typically you’ve had some rain in the winter time the soil’s a little softer might be a little later if you’re in the North and the ground’s a little more Frozen but as it thaws out it’s certainly a great time of year to be edging beds the other thing we got to do is all of our pruning I don’t want to I don’t want to put this mulch cap down over these leaves because and then walk through it constantly and so again it’s this leaf removal edging any disturbances I’m going to be doing if I’m planting some shrubs or some trees and I can get those done before I mulch that’s great too you know just any kind of disturbance is going to bring weed seeds to the top and so all of our as much of the pruning as we can we’re going to get done so our Ground Covers need pruning our shrubs a lot of our shrubs need pruning we had some winter damage back in December probably a lot of you watching this had some winter damage back in December so we’re going to try to cut some of that material back that needs to be pruned some of our uh material back here that’s in a little more shade than it would like and it’s a little stretched those things are going to get cut back so there’s going to be a lot of pruning out here the one several things I’ll say on pruning number one you need to really know what you have and so if it’s a flowering thing and you don’t know whether it blooms on last year’s Wood meaning it grew all last year and then set flower buds before the winter uh if you prune that in the winter time you’re pruning the flowers off that aelas would be a great example of that uh if you don’t know what you have just wait until it flies and then prune it after it flowers and then you don’t have to worry about this but um there are things um that you know we don’t rely on flowers for they flower you know things like low growing Hol or boxwoods a lot of flowering plants that we just we’re growing them because they’re just green right those things can be pruned Ground Covers nonflowering things if it’s a flowering thing and it blooms in the summertime typically you can prune those in the winter if it’s an early flowering spring thing typically you want to avoid pruning them uh until after they flower that’s kind of a brief summary on pruning again is if it’s an early flowering thing you don’t want to be pruning it now there will be some damaged things though in people’s Landscapes that just aren’t going to bloom well regardless and you’re probably going to be able to look at that thing and go even if it flowers it going to be attractive and you might want to go ahead and cut it back um this winter and I again we’re wait a lot of the bigger pruning jobs I’ll wait a little further into February you it won’t be the very first thing I’ll do in February but I want to get them done sooner than later here in zone 7B in Raleigh and even especially even further south are grasses and grass-like plants so our ornamental grasses you know the grasses that get little plumes and decorative grasses and our caraxes and you know sges rushes you know all of those kinds of things you need to get those cut back in February before the new growth starts on them so then that would include things like lopy um if you were going to prune back any Mondo Grass or scalp it off those are those are projects you’re going to want to do in February we’re going to start cutting back our perennials and so we leave most of our perennials up through the winter not the most attractive thing in the world um but it gives good cover uh for the plant that’s under the ground and you know any insects and things like that that we’re living on them uh through the winter time but it is time to clean those up again I want to do as much prep as I can possibly do before we put mulch down in order to not create disturbances in the bed that will create weed very weedy conditions during the summer a few more pruning things I put up a video a couple weeks ago uh pruning back the old leaves on helbor and you can see this one coming out just showing off the the new foliage and the new flowers without the distraction of the old uh leaves uh that were on them so um that’s one thing that we that we do this Cast Iron Plant typically we wait for some new growth to come out on them and then and then cut them back some but the cold really really got this one and so this is an example of a plant I’m probably just going to go ahead and cut it completely back again normally I would be doing selective pruning it would just be the oldest growth on it but there’s really nothing here to save and so um we’re going to see some new growth on it here in the next few weeks and it’s just going to get chopped back this will be the time to do regenerative pruning and so if you’ve got a shrub that’s just gotten completely out of control and it really you got to get control of it you want to cut it down to you know 18 in tall and it’s 6 feet tall today this is the time of year to do it so February March best time to do that this Mahonia that’s next to me here if it needed you know if I felt like it just needed to go down to the ground I’d absolutely do it right now while it’s dormant uh would be the best time of year to do that there’s some uh Black Mondo Grass I know this is all covered in leaves we’re going to uh get all these perennials uncovered here before we mulch but here’s some Black Mondo Grass right here and we want to use this in a few places it’s finally starting to spread about a bit if I wanted to dig this up and divide it this would be the time to do it so any of the perennials here that I can see or even ones I can’t you know if it’s a hosta and I kind of know where it is I can pop it out of the ground and divide it right now and uh uh just a great time of year to do that again the ground’s very workable you can pop things out of the ground cut them with a shovel put them in two new homes give one away whatever you want to do great time of year to do that one other flowering shrub that I can definitely prune on are my Chamilia sanqua as they they finished blooming at this point these are the fall blooming uh Chamas they’ll typically Bloom until right about the time you’re watching uh watching this video and uh so if they need any work I’ll get I’ll cut on those my Chamilia japonicas the later blooming Chamas are probably still blooming and they again they’ll just get cut after flowering if you cut things after they flower uh not a problem of course dormant trees uh like this uh Red Bud if it needed any work right now this would be the time to do it I think I need to get in here while it’s dormant while there’s no leaves on it I got a perennial falling on it I’ll cut back as well uh here in the month of of February but any of these limbs up here that I’m looking at and I can see they’re clearly Crossing one another and they’re just going to be inside the plant this season rubbing on one another I’m going to go ahead and get rid of those um you know get rid of one of the two of them I’ll make a decision on which one I want but here’s you here’s an example just two limbs are they going to rub one another all year this one being the D the dominant one that’s almost all the way down to the ground this little side one I’m not going to be to see it anyway it’s just going to be damaging this one so I’ll probably cut it off so I’m looking at trees that way you know if there’s limbs that are going to be rubbing one another during the season and I can see it right now right so um I’ll get in here and get those out while it’s easy so part of our strategy leading up to putting in our cool seasoned vegetable seeds is a lot of planning and so we you know think through you know what work has worked well for us in the past you know what we’re going to do you know uh whether we’re keeping something getting rid of it all those things are done you know through writing things down and so making sure that you’re labeling things whether it’s going in the ground you know some sort of label in the ground in a container uh whatever you’re doing in you know your your seeding trays those kinds of things so that you can keep up with what works and what doesn’t works on a year-to-year basis uh it’s it’s super super helpful this plant next to me is an edge woria and it blooms uh during the month of uh during the month of February typically and it’s already starting to open underneath it’s got nodding uh flowers so they tend to be you know pointing down at the ground but you can pull them up they’re wonderfully uh fragrant uh just fantastic just a fantastic plant it’s one of the strategies we have uh in this landscape is to have something blooming all the time and we can do that here in the South you know the the hellor are starting near me we’ll have daffodils in in a week or two uh again this edgeworthia there’s a few Chamas that are starting to open and by March it’ll be a whole another series of things so it’s one of those things that we’re out in the world planning for uh if you haven’t bought seeds whatever kind of seeds whether you’re going to do summer vegetable seeds or you’re going to do flour seeds perennial seeds doesn’t matter what it is I’d go ahead and buy them sooner than later there’s been kind of a shortage with all the new gardeners in the last few years buying seed and so and I go ahead and buy my fall seed at the exact same time so you know if you’re going to do fall vegetables like we’ve just done cool season vegetables now we go ahead and acquire those uh now because I don’t trust that the things that I want will be available later another thing that will be available for purchase of this time of year are going to be summer bulbs so things like leat elephan ear cadium um what else am I missing from that list dalas uh and lots more there’s a lot of things that will be available again not necessarily the time to put them in the ground uh in your area I can get Dal tubers now but they are cold sensitive and so I will just store them until it’s time to put them in the ground which will be after my average last frost date which is sometime around mid April uh so keep that in mind but do go ahead and acquire them just keep them to the side uh don’t put those tropical things in the ground right now make sure all your tools um are ready for the season it’s one of those things it’s kind of easy to get past you you know you pull out the lawn mower and realize that you didn’t sharpen the blade and you didn’t change the oil and you need whatever you need uh to do on tools uh and sharpen blades on pruners this this month of February we’re going to be pruning like crazy and so you know I want to make sure I have I have the proper tools and they’re sharp enough so I’m not leaving Jagged edges on things to us birds are a very important part of the garden uh they can help you with some of some of your insects problems and they’re just a fun part of outdoor activities hearing them in the morning hearing them I can you know listen to them right now and so you know we’re cleaning the bird bath cleaning out bird houses feeding them uh and we’re just inviting them making making making a good space available for them we’re planting uh native plants uh that are good for them as well uh that they enjoy and it’s another thing we’re out shopping for is additional native plants for you know for our pollinators and you know um there’s not you know as I as I’m sitting here in the middle of these Chamas which are non-invasive non-natives we do have a lot of native plants in this garden and we want to continue to add to that uh in the future great time of year to be going and visiting Gardens you can go in February and see all the amazing things that you could potentially have uh in your garden and as part of your garden um or not have in your garden and just go and enjoy uh this time of year because those Gardens are starting to really wake up and and ramp up and I guarantee you almost every Garden every great botanic and botanic garden Arboretum uh in the country has early flowering displays whether it be whether it be bulbs pansies you know annual things who knows what it is or shrubs that are already waking up and blooming it’s definitely worth going and visiting and seeing the things that you can have for kind of a year round Garden so then after all those tasks the cleaning and edging and making new bed space there’s a couple spaces back here I want to make some new bed space and all the pruning and vast majority and and and pruning back perennials and shrubs and all those kinds of things once the vast majority of those things are done then we will mulch during the month of February so sometime mid to late February you’ll see a mulching video I’m just going to use triple shredded hardwood which is what they call it here it’s just hardwood mulch that’s been ground two or three times um and it’s it lasts longer than some other things for me but you can use whatever you want to as as mulch you can use the leaves like I’ve got out here if you want to get some new leaves before they’re all gone and grind them up and use that you can use pine bark pine bark tends to float pine bark and pine bark mini nuggets and Nuggets if you’re in an area that gets a lot of rainfall or you got any kind of slope they tend to float somewhat you can use wood chips um but if you’re using wood chips in existing beds I would go a little thinner you know I wouldn’t put down you know big giant layer of wood chips like I would if I was starting new beds uh so there’s lots and lots of things pine straw that’d be another example of something you can Ms with mols with whatever I’ll be using something called triple shredded hardwood don’t know what it’s called in your area but it’s just hardwood bark that’s been ground up um fairly fine consistency what I like about it is it’s different size materials and it tends to lock on itself get a a little bit of a crust on top of it which again is good for preventing weeds from germinating because that’s the main thing I want to avoid is All Summer Long being out here combating weeds watering in the month of February here in Raleigh very very little of it when we put something new in the ground we’ll water it in just to settle it in but for the most part we won’t need water on anything you know we’ll check our containers of some you know things that have been in the containers for a little while longer cuz if it does warm up and they start to put on some new growth maybe they’ll use some water but for the most part not a lot of watering uh to be done February is a very busy month and I kind of like it because here in this area 65 you know let’s say 55° to 70° almost every day and so so you can come out and work hard in it without you know without it being too cold and without it being too hot the ground is very workable kind of easy you know just kind of easier overall and it kind of gets you you know where you’re doing these things and you’re setting yourself up for later in the year so that you know you can really um you know get these projects behind you so that you can enjoy the time in the garden while it’s actively growing later in the season and not feel like you you know have to be throwing yourself and working in it when it’s 95° outside so there you go U that’s the February Garden checklist thank you guys very much for following along with the channel and we’ll be back in March with another one thanks for watching