February Gardening Tips and Tasks

• Make a place for birds. Hang up a bird nesting box and choose some native plants for birds to include in your garden this spring. If you offer food, black oil sunflower seeds and suet cakes are a good choice for a wide variety of birds. Keep feeders clean and provide fresh water. Birds eat a lot insects in the spring and summertime -- good natural pest control!
• Limit the use of salt to melt ice and snow. Learn how to melt ice safely. The Maryland Lawn Fertilizer Law prohibits the use of fertilizer products to melt ice and snow on steps, sidewalks, or driveways.
• Set up a system to compost kitchen food scraps and yard waste. Check your local city/county ordinances first.

• If your soil is poor and you want to grow vegetables, flowers, or herbs next spring, consider building a raised bed and fill it with a mixture of topsoil and leaf compost. Another option is to plant a container garden.
• Check the germination rate of old seed: place 20 seeds between moistened paper towels, roll up the towel, and place it in a plastic container to hold humidity (like a bread bag). Put the bag in a warm location and check after 5 to 10 days to see what percentage has germinated. Discard batches of seeds that produce less than a 75% germination rate.
• Start seeds indoors for onions, broccoli, and cabbage.
• Cover onion, leek, and garlic plants in the vegetable garden with row cover to protect them from allium leafminer damage. Keep the plants covered through the spring. Watch a video to learn more about this pest and how to protect your plants.
• Keep garden beds covered with shredded leaves, straw, or bark mulch to minimize the risk of soil erosion and nutrient runoff.
• Buy fresh seed locally, or order from mail-order seed companies. Select cultivars with resistance to diseases that have been a problem in your garden.

Examine the base of a shrub for signs of vole damage if you notice dead stems or branches. This is a fairly common occurrence on mugo pine (Pinus mugo), cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus), azalea (Rhododendron species and hybrids), boxwood (Buxus), and juniper (Juniperus). Voles are a type of field mouse that takes cover in deep mulch (a good reason not to use more than 2 to 3 inches of mulch depth). They feed on roots, crowns, and above-ground wood. Snow cover can also provide shelter for voles that tunnel on the surface of lawns. The tunneling becomes evident when the snow melts.

• Seeds for some types of flowers (such as sweet pea, geranium, begonia, and impatiens) need to be started 10 to 12 weeks before the last expected frost.
• Spring bulbs can still be planted if the ground is not frozen. Inspect the bulbs and plant only the firm, healthy ones, since bulbs can deteriorate in storage. Late-planted bulbs might still bloom this year, but will not be as vigorous as those planted in autumn. Do not cut back the plant's foliage as it starts to fade and wither later in the season -- let it die off naturally so the plant can store those energy reserves and resources back in the bulb during dormancy.

• Armored scale insects can be managed with a dormant oil spray (horticulture oil) any time that trees and shrubs are dormant. Be sure that temperatures are expected to remain above freezing for a 24 hour period after spraying. Read the product label for more application information and restrictions.
• Inspect trees for spotted lanternfly egg masses and remove them.

• Daylength is increasing and the sunlight is becoming more intense, so houseplants will begin to show signs of new growth. It is time to start fertilizing indoor plants.
• Leaf yellowing and leaf drop houseplants can be a result of insufficient light combined with overwatering. Spider mites are another possible cause.
• Anthurium, moth orchid (Phalaenopsis), African violet, kalanchoe and other succulents, cyclamen, and air plants (Tillandsia) can all make nice gifts or accents for rooms with moderate to bright light.

Clothes moths and carpet beetles are two common fabric-damaging pests. The larvae (immature life stages) cause the damage, not the adult moth or beetle. Prevention is key to management by keeping materials clean and stored in containers that exclude insects.