February Gardening Activities

  

 

February is the ideal time to lay the foundation for a great gardening season. Activities should include winter watering, planning, focused pruning, soil improvement, seed starting inventory, and tool maintenance. 

Watering: The Most Important Task of the Month. Deep‑water trees, shrubs, roses, and perennials when temperatures rise above freezing and the ground is void of snow. Water all the trees, shrubs, roses, and perennials in your landscape, with special attention to evergreens, young trees, and anything planted in the last two years. Water early in the day so moisture can move into the soil before nighttime temperatures drop. 

Why it matters: Even in winter dormancy, your garden is alive beneath the surface. Roots continue to breathe; soil microbes remain active, and moisture loss accelerates under dry winds and freeze-thaw cycles. February is when desiccation peaks — especially for evergreens and young transplants — making deep watering a critical intervention. 

 

In the vegetable garden, it's time to decide what to plant where and when. Refer to your gardening notes to remind you of successes and problems from past seasons to help you decide what you want to grow, then draw up a layout to help you with the planning process.  Sketching isn’t just aesthetic — it helps optimize sun exposure, airflow, and crop rotation, reducing disease pressure and boosting yields. 

Whether you are establishing a new bed or renewing last year’s garden, it’s important to have a plan. Among other things, a plan will help you decide what you’re going to grow this season. Planning your garden now will help you achieve the most in the space and location you have available. Having a plan will also help you apply lessons – good and bad, from past gardening experiences.     

   

When deciding what to plant this year, it’s always good to grow what you’ll eat. If you don’t like beets or broccoli, don’t plant them. Once you’ve made your list of crops to grow, the next question is whether to direct sow, start your own seedlings or buy rooted starter plants from The Flower Bin. The best choice may be a combination of all three.   

 

Selective pruning at this point of the season aligns with plant physiology, but it’s important to know your shrubs before you prune. You can prune summer flowering shrubs such as butterfly bush, blue mist spirea and hardy hibiscus in late winter or early spring, because they bloom on this year’s growth or “new wood”. It is safe to prune these shrubs because they haven’t set flower buds yet.   Exceptions to dormant season pruning include early spring flowering shrubs such as lilacs, Rose of Sharon, Weigela, Forsythia. If you prune these now, you’ll remove any flowers.    

 

Prepping garden beds now gives soil microbes time to integrate compost and organic matter before spring planting. As a rule, to improve your garden soil and lower the pH, you need to add more organic material in the form of sheep manure and organic compost. We recommend you add two to three inches of locally produced organic material to your garden in the spring and again in the fall.  Coconut coir and worm casting are also good choices for improving your garden soil.  

Avoid digging or turning soil if the ground is wet or frozen. If this is the case, simply top dress the bed with the appropriate amount of organic material and wait for warmer soil conditions to work it in.  

 

 

If you’ve decided to start seeds indoors, make sure you have the supplies you need, including trays, domes, heat mats, seed starting soil, and grow lights.  

  

 

 

Tool maintenance includes sharpening pruners and loppers, cleaning trowels, shovels, and garden forks.  Replace mower blades or send them for sharpening. 

 

Plan your Spring planting projects. If you are looking for new perennials, trees, or shrubs, a good starting point is our plant guide. https://plants.theflowerbin.net/12120039/ 

This guide is intended for informational services only. While it represents the many of the shrubs, perennials and other plants we carry over the course of the season, we cannot guarantee every variety will be in stock - please contact the store directly for current availability.  

It’s important to note that this guide does not include our entire selection of plants, so be sure to visit our store to see varieties that may not be represented on this list. 

 

Remember to keep the water in your birdbath thawed and full. 

 

A Guide to Effective Winter Watering Along the Front Range

 

Colorado gardeners hear the phrase “Don’t forget to winter water” every year, but the real reason it matters often gets lost. Winter watering isn’t about pampering plants — it’s about protecting the shallow, vulnerable root systems that keep your landscape alive.  

Without supplemental watering, trees, shrubs, roses, perennials, and lawns will suffer damage. This is especially true as we experience extended dry spells.   

In Colorado, an “extended dry spell” in winter typically means three or more weeks without measurable precipitation or snow cover. Little or no snow cover — even if it snowed recently, most has melted quickly or blown away, leaving dry, exposed soil — especially on south- and west-facing slopes or near buildings.  

The answer is to provide supplemental water. That said, for winter watering to be effective, there are key factors you need to consider, including temperature, time of day, and sprinkler type. First, pick a day when the ambient temperature is forty degrees or higher and there is no snow on the ground. Plan to water around midday, to allow time for the water to soak into the ground. You can water using a soft spray attachment such as an adjustable water nozzle or attach a simple sprinkler to your hose.  Don’t turn your sprinkler   system on.    

   

Water when the ground isn’t frozen. You don’t need special tools to tell whether soil is frozen. Take a long screwdriver and push it into the ground. If it slides in easily, the soil is not frozen. If it stops abruptly or only goes in an inch or two, the soil is frozen. This works even in heavy clay.  

If daytime temps have been above 40°F for several hours, the top few inches often thaw enough to accept water. If it’s been freezing for days, assume the soil is frozen.  

   

When you do water, aim for slow, even moisture applications, using a hose-end sprayer, sprinkler, bubbler, or shallow root-watering needle. Avoid turning on your sprinkler system.   

Pay particular attention to south- and west-facing exposures where soil dries fastest. Plan to water once every 4–6 weeks during dry spells.  

Trees: Check the thickness of the tree trunk when trying to figure out how much water to apply.  A general rule of thumb is 10 gallons of water for every inch of trunk diameter. A 3-inch diameter tree should receive 30 gallons of water.    

   

If you’re unsure how long to run your sprinkler or hose end sprayer, start by calculating the flow rate coming from your hose bib. An easy way to do this is to use a 10gallon bucket. Turn on the hose at the pressure you’ll use and time how long it takes to fill the bucket. If it takes 5 minutes to fill a 10-gallon bucket, the gallons per minute (GPM) coming from your hose bib equals 2. (10/5 = 2 GPM). To achieve the 30 gallons needed for a three-inch tree, you will need to run the sprinkler or hose-end sprayer for 15 minutes. (30/2 = 15).   

   

Don’t water directly against the base of the trunk – rather you should water along the ‘dripline’.  This is the area located under the outer circumference of the tree branches.  Move the sprinkler every few minutes to cover the entire dripline.   

Once you know the GPM, you can apply the same timing requirements for the rest of your landscape plants, including:   

   

Shrubs: For newly planted shrubs, apply 4-5 gallons of water. For small established shrubs that are less than 3 feet tall, 5 gallons of water every 4 to 6 weeks.  For established shrubs over 6 feet, 18 gallons per month.    

   

Roses: Established roses need 4-5 gallons per plant per watering, applied slowly at the base of the bush. Newly planted roses (1st–2nd year) 4-6 gallons per plant, because their root systems are smaller and dry out faster. Water twice as often as established roses (every 2 weeks).  

   

Large shrub roses and climbing roses need approximately 6-7 gallons, depending on canopy size and exposure. These have more aboveground masses that lose moisture even in dormancy.  

   

Perennials: Established perennials about ½–1 gallon per plant. Larger clumps (peonies, daylilies, ornamental grasses) may take 1–2 gallons. Newly planted perennials (first year) need 1–2 gallons per plant. Their young root systems dry out quickly in freeze–thaw cycles.  

This includes any perennials you are trying to winter over in containers. 

   

Turf: If it’s been three or more weeks without measurable precipitation or snow cover, cool season grasses need to be watered. This includes Bluegrass, Perennial Rye, and Fescue. Plan to provide 1-2 inches of supplemental watering every four to six weeks. This will hydrate the roots and help control winter mites, which can infest and kill drought-stressed turf especially on exposed slopes and south or west-facing areas during winter and early spring.  

   

Newly planted trees, shrubs, roses, and perennials are the most vulnerable to winter drought because their root systems are still tiny, shallow, and not yet connected to the surrounding soil. A new plant has only its root ball and a few exploratory roots. It hasn’t grown the wide, shallow network that established plants depend on for moisture.   

New plants can only access the water that’s right around the root ball — and that dries out fast in Colorado winters. In addition, mature plants have carbohydrates and moisture reserves in their tissues. New plants don’t have that buffer yet. 

 

Transplant stress compounds winter stress. Those newly planted trees, shrubs, perennials, and roses are struggling to recover from root loss during planting. Add winter drought, and the risk of dieback skyrockets.  

The point of all of this is to protect your investment with supplemental watering throughout the winter and spring months.  

When you are done watering, disconnect the hose from the bib and store it.