As the sun is starting to set later and the days are getting warmer, you may get the itch to get outside and start gardening! Below are some tips on what you can do to start preparing your lawn and garden for the spring season.
Pruning
Tis the season to prune! February is an excellent time to trim most ornamental shrubs, blueberry bushes, grape vines, ornamental grasses, and fruit trees. These plants include the following.
Summer Flowering Shrubs: crape myrtle, Rose of Sharon (Althea), butterfly bush, Elaeagnus, and August flowering hydrangeas (normally with white flowers).
Ornamental Grasses: Ornamental grasses should be cut back before new growth starts. You can mow or prune to remove last year’s foliage. Ornamental grasses can be divided now.
Overgrown Broadleaf Shrubs: Ligustrum (privet), boxwood, Osmanthus, Photinia (red tip), holly, viburnum, etc.
Always be on the lookout for dead, damaged, diseased wood in trees and shrubs. Prune it out once discovered. Remove suckers and water sprouts, too.
Fertilizing
Now is a great time to soil test! Most homeowners do not know that they are over-fertilizing. Stop by your local extension office to grab a soil testing kit so you know what your lawn and garden actually need, nutrient-wise.
Fescue lawns can be fertilized in late February. Without a soil test, we recommend using no more than 1 pound of nitrogen per 1000sq ft. Late or excessive fertilizing in spring can create favorable conditions for Brown Patch disease.
Trees, if they are in good condition, well mulched, or in a natural area, they do not need regular fertilizing. If you fertilize your lawn regularly, you are fertilizing trees in the area as well.
Most shrubs respond well to an application of a slow-release fertilizer. Apply according to directions and distribute it evenly over the entire root area but away from their trunk/stems.
Gardening
In our area, you can (usually) plant the following around the last week of February. These plants include onions, peas, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, mustard, radishes, and spinach to name a few. Keep in mind, if temperatures are to drop below 26 degrees, you’ll need to provide some type of protection to those plants.
