What to do in your Orange County Garden during the month of February

Many of you may have noticed it’s beginning to feel like spring especially in the garden.

Another clue spring is close is the abundance of seed catalogs arriving in the mail, that’s because February is a good month to order seeds and prepare for your spring and summer garden. It’s not too early to start seeds for beets, carrots, collards, fava beans, kale, leeks, lettuce, parsley, peas, rutabaga, spinach, and turnip, besides planning for your warm-season plantings.

Chores in the Garden:

🌱If you haven’t already, cut back roses by removing older branches or any branches that touch or cross. The goal is to open up the plants, so air and sun can reach the interior. Remove all leaves. After pruning, spray roses with a dormant spray.

🌼Prune any dormant summer or fall blooming trees and shrubs like grapes, and berries before they develop buds.

🌱Prune any plants that have suffered wind or frost damage.

🌼Remove all weeds. Leaving weeds in the ground until they flower or go to seed will create and disperse even more weeds. Hint if you water the area to be weeded the night before it will be easier to remove the weed and its entire root system.

🌱Cut back ornamental grasses to a height of 4-6 inches.

🌼If you live along the coast you can fertilize citrus and avocado with a granular organic fertilizer.

🌱Be diligent about looking for standing water to prevent mosquitoes from breeding. The Aedes mosquito lay eggs in as little as a small capful of water. Don’t forget to check buckets, saucers underneath pots, birdbaths, bromeliads, clogged rain gutters and untended pools.

Planting in the Garden:

🌼Plant bare-root roses and deciduous fruit trees (including; apple, apricot, fig, nectarine, peach, pear, pomegranate, plum, pluots).

🌱Plant blueberries and rhubarb in pots since they both love acidic soil.

🌼Plant bulbs for spring and early summer blooms–including agapanthus, amaryllis, tuberous begonias, caladiums, calla lilies, canna lilies, colchicums, dahlias, daffodils, daylilies, gladiolus, bearded and Dutch iris and tuberoses.