Essential Gardening Tips and Advice for the Month of February

In February the weather can bring snow one day and mild sunny weather the next yet there is an unquestionable sense of moving towards spring this month with the days getting longer and plants beginning to stir. While much of the country is covered in snow, the southern west coast has tips of early spring bulbs emerging, pretty snowdrops reaching their peak and early flowering shrubs developing plumb buds preparing to bloom.

With spring around the corner, there is a growing sense of urgency to get on with jobs that need to be done before the end of winter and before new growth appears. This is the time to get ready for the growing season ahead. Many of the January jobs equally apply this month but with important additional tasks to be done towards the end of the month, weather permitting.

It is not too early for moving plants in the borders or adding new ones with planting any bare-root trees, shrubs or hedges taking on real urgency and be completed by the end of the month. Pruning too should be completed whether fruit trees or remedial pruning of outgrown hedges or shrubs.

This month’s double spotlight feature is on pruning table grapes and on winter pruning of deciduous and evergreen shrubs. Read on for details.

Filling planter with compost

Constructing cedar planter box

Snowdrops in February

Table Grape after winter prune

Raspberry support structure

Winter flowering Witch Hazel

Winter pruning of Table Grapes

Jobs for February checklist:

• Begin pruning table grapes towards end of month if temps are expected to remain above freezing and up until early April. See spotlight feature below for detailed instructions.

• Complete winter pruning of Apple and Pear trees before mid March. See my January Blog's spotlight feature for detailed instructions on how to do this.

• Plant and transplant trees including fruit trees, shrubs and woody vines as long as the ground is workable and temps are above freezing

• Prune summer flowering shrubs that rely on this year’s growth. See spotlight feature below for detailed instructions.

• Prune Wisteria now and again in summer

  • Unless over-crowded, retain spurs which are short budded branches that produce flowers in spring

  • Prune out thin shoots that wind through the framework and cut these right back to 2 or 3 buds

  • In summer remove whippy vegetative growth to 2 buds

• Prepare vegetable beds by working in well-rotted manure or compost

  • Amending or enriching vegetable gardens with well-rotten manure improves soil structure and provides a long term slow release of nutrients. See my detailed blog on The Importance of Soil Health and Plant Nutrition.

• Vegetables-Start chilly peppers, sweet peppers and tomatoes indoors this month or in March. Sow parsley outdoors in containers or in the veggie patch

• Sow perennial poppy seeds outdoors by scattering on the surface. Do not cover with soil as they need light to germinate

• Apply Dolomite lime to lawns towards the end of month

  • Dolomite Lime neutralizes acidic soils and corrects calcium and magnesium deficiencies

• This is a good time of year to create garden structures such as building raised vegetable planters or unique log rimmed raised beds and culinary herb spiral gardens out of local stone

  • See RHS guide for detailed instructions on how to build a raised bed https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-features/how-to-make-a-raised-bed.

• Sharpen mower blades and tune up before the spring equipment servicing rush

• Continue to cut back deciduous grasses left uncut from winter display

• Continue to lift and divide perennials

• Prune summer flowering Clematis

  • Late-flowering (Group Three) clematis can all be pruned hard from the middle of the month. They flower on growth made in spring so all the previous year’s growth should be cleared away now. Cut down to about 2ft from the ground, leaving at least two healthy pairs of buds. 

  • In determining which group your clematis belongs to, consider when it flowers and remember an old English rhyme  “if it flowers before June do not prune”

  • Group III late flowering (after mid June) includes: clematis jackmanii, C. viticella, ‘Gypsy Queen’, ‘Hagley Hybrid’, ‘Perle d’Azur’ and ‘Ville de Lyon’.

• Check all supports, wires, ties and structures that will be carrying climbing plants this year. Any that are damaged should be repaired or replaced now before they need to be used and before new growth begin

Lindsay’s top tips for February:

• When constructing raised vegetable planters, I like to use natural untreated cedar rather than pressure treated cedar as it doesn’t risk leaching toxic substances into the soil where food will be grown. Cedar is one of the better decay-resistant woods.

  • For additional long term protection in wet climates, I use a non-toxic natural wood preservative stain by Valhalla Wood Preservatives to treat the cedar lumber myself and had great long lasting results from that. Linseed oil is another good natural alternative.

    • Lee’s Priceless Recipes is a good reference guide for making your own natural wood treatment stains.

• Applying Dolomite lawn in late February and into early March helps balance pH levels in soil which over time reduces moss growth as it neutralizes the acidic conditions preferable to moss. It also helps green lawns up in early spring with the nutrient addition of Calcium.

  • I prefer using Dolopril, a product available in an easy to spread granular form that doesn’t cause a big cloud of white dust when being applied.

• I like to enrich my vegetable gardens with well rotted manure this month as it allows for adequate time for manure to break down and be incorporated into the soil and reduces the risk of burning tender new plantings in early spring. If manure is on the fresher side, this can be done in late fall allowing more time to break down and mellow out. Planting into manure that is not well rotted can burn tender plants and seedlings and prevent seeds from germinating.

  • I like to use a product called Tri-blend Manure made of a blend of mushroom, cow and chicken manure. I pick this up from a bulk supplier that sells by the bag or by the yard. Composted Steer manure also does the trick. I particularly like steer manure for Rose beds which I apply after pruning in mid to late March.

  • See my March blog and soil health and plant nutrition post for further in-depth information, tips and advice on using aged manure products.

• After pruning, It’s important to disinfect pruning tool blades to avoid transferring any fungal or bacterial diseases from diseased wood to other healthy shrubs and trees. I clean my tools with dish soap and hot water, rinse and let dry and then apply a mineral oil to lubricate and prevent rust developing.

Spotlight on Winter Pruning of Table Grapes:

Begin pruning table grapes towards the end of the month if expected to remain above freezing and until early April. Use the cane pruning method for table grapes

Cane pruning is the best method for lower vigor, cool climate grape varietals such as table grapes.

When to prune: Prune vines late February until early April. On the West Coast of BC its best to wait until late February as temps -5c and below can be damaging to grape vine buds.

Why prune: Grapes are produced on one year old canes and the most fruitful canes will be those that were exposed to light during growing season.

Tools for the job: Sharp secateurs for most canes, sharp loppers for older woody material and a good quality pruning saw for any thick dead sections of trunk or die back stubs.

Pruning steps to follow:

1. Using the cane pruning method-Select a strong healthy cane to tie horizontally to each wire in each direction. Pick canes thicker than a pencil but less than 3x as thick as a pencil. Oversized canes tend to be less fruitful

2. Retain 18-24 inches (approximately 15 buds along canes) of the saved canes and tie-in along wire then go ahead and prune out the rest of the canes. You’re typically removing 90% of the canes

3. When selecting canes choose ones that originate close to the trunk and are also able to bend horizontally along the wire without breaking

4. Leave renewal spurs (2 bud spurs on the trunk or head of the vine) to create future fruiting wood. Retaining a couple of stubby 2 bud spurs makes renewal canes for the year after next

Table Grapes before pruning

Table Grapes after pruning

Loppers and Falco Pruners

3 year old vine after pruning

Table Grapes before pruning

Table Grape vine after pruning

30 year old vine unpruned

30 year old vine after pruning

30 year old vine in early fall

Spotlight on Winter Pruning Evergreen and Deciduous Shrubs:

This is a good time to prune summer flowering shrubs and also rejuvenate overgrown deciduous or evergreen shrubs and trees including removing dead, damaged and diseased wood and raising canopies by removing select lower branches to improve form or allow for under-plantings to be more visible.

When to prune: Dormant season January through till March. Renovation/remedial pruning of overgrown shrubs can be done now and should be completed before the onset of spring.

Why prune: Pruning is beneficial to provide a strong framework and maintain a good shape while keeping plants healthy and rejuvenating overgrown shrubs

Tools for the Job: Sharp secateurs, sharp loppers and a good quality pruning saw. These are each suited to different diameters of shoots and branches

Start with the three D’s: Remove dead, damaged and diseased wood then remove crossing or rubbing shoots to ground level.

Multi-stemmed shrubs such as Lilac, Forsythia, Smoke Bush and Dogwood benefit from an annual staggered renovation whereby you remove the above three D’s and crossing stems and then cut back 1/3rd of remaining older stems to ground level (a technique called coppicing). Leaving at least half or more of the older stems ensures there will be some flowers this season.

A full renovation is cutting back or coppicing all stems to ground level. Then do directional pruning to shorten remaining canes. Cut to a bud or shoot facing the direction you want the branch to continue to grow-growth points.

Coppicing is a pruning technique where a tree or shrub is cut to ground level, resulting in regeneration of new stems from the base.

Tip-To allow the maximum time to enjoy colourful stems in winter, Dogwood and Willows are typically pruned from late March to mid April, just as the new growth is developing.