February 2025
February in the Garden
I’d like to congratulate everyone for making it through the coldest and snowiest Januaries I can remember. I was worried about my small boxwood shrubs buried for weeks under the mountains of snow I had created in my garden, as I shoveled 18 inches of snow from our sidewalk. Mercifully, as I type this, our garden is snow free and my little boxwoods survived, albeit with a few broken branches.
The good news is that February, though it can be the dreariest month, brings us the first hints of Spring. The Hellebores are starting to bloom and I’ve noticed that the Alliums, Snowdrops, and Daffodils are all emerging from the thawing ground. I’m also happy to report that for those of us who thrive on light and warmth, we will start to see a significant lengthening of daylight hours in February, gaining an extra hour of light by the end of the month. Temperatures are also starting their trend upwards, from an average high of 41 on February 1st, to 48 (almost 50 in gardeners’ terms) by February 28th.
I’ve been using this slow time in the garden to sharpen my skills as a garden coach. I have always been fairly confident about my ability to create a good garden design in my head. My struggles always came with getting that design on paper, so I could share the vision with a client. So, I signed up for “Garden Graphics Toolkit” a 12 week class taught by a professor and landscape architect from Iowa State University. I’m about one month in and am really enjoying the class (see one of my practice drawings below). When the course is finished I will be better able to convey my designs to clients and hopefully they will be more excited about their future garden space. I also just completed a “Garden Consultant Bootcamp” course from Gardenary, to help me improve my garden coaching and consulting skills. Gardenary has helped more than 1,500 passionate gardeners establish profitable garden consulting practices across the country. I finished the course with a much better understanding of how to translate my passion for helping gardeners into an actual business.
February Garden Tasks
Now is a good time to mulch around those emerging Spring bulbs, before they get too tall. Mulching now will make a big difference and pay dividends throughout the Spring and Summer, keeping down weeds, retaining soil moisture, and improving the soil. I like to use a compost/manure blend from Evergreen (see photo below), which I can purchase pretty inexpensively (about $3.50/bag for 1 cubic foot) at Lowe’s.
February is also the time to place your seed orders, so you can begin sowing them indoors in March, making sure the seedlings are ready to transplant into the garden at the end of April. Starting your annuals from seed is a great way to save money in the garden.
At the end of the month, you can begin cutting down the tall deciduous grasses you’ve left up for the Winter. After several snowfalls, many of them are starting to look a bit ragged or beat down. You want to cut them to about 4”-5” above the ground, before this year’s growth starts to emerge.
Keep feeding the birds daily. Some species will begin to mate in February and will soon start constructing nests. The better nourished they are now, the more likely they are to have a healthy brood this Spring. When temperatures are above freezing, make sure they also have access to fresh water.
My first urn planting of the 2025 gardening season. Hellebores, Heuchera, Ferns, and Dock. All plants which will be able to withstand February temps in the 20s.