Gardening Tips for February for Chantilly, VA

Southeast Region

• Temperatures can drop to freezing this month; annuals that can take the chill include pansies, viola, and dianthus.
• Clean your annual and perennial flower beds. Add compost to the soil and add more mulch to the beds.
• Bulbs can still be planted. Water well and apply mulch for protection. Try dahlias!
• Continue to deadhead flowers, such as pansies.
• Put down mulch across all garden beds to control for weeds.
• Divide and replant crowded perennials after they emerge.
• Fertilize spring-blooming bulbs.
• Finish planting shrubs and trees. Fertilize.
• If not done in January, fertilize established fruit trees now.
• Prune dormant trees. Avoid pruning citrus until the spring.
• Prune shrubs now; wait to prune spring-flowering shrubs until after they bloom.
• Fertilize established fruit trees. Continue planting dormant fruit trees.
• Plant more vegetables, such as lettuce, cabbage, collards, onion sets, brussels sprouts, broccoli, carrots, spinach, kale, mustard greens, radishes, turnips, peas, and beets.
• Plant Irish potatoes now! Plant 3 inches deep.
• Plant asparagus.
• Replenish mulch on strawberries.
• Start your indoor seed boxes of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and cauliflower indoors.
• Prune roses to remove damaged canes. Then fertilize and apply mulch for protection.
• Divide and transplant perennial herbs.
• Seed herbs for April planting.
• You can fertilize your houseplants with a water-soluble fertilizer when they show new growth.
• After temperatures rise to 65 degrees F for 4 to 5 days, apply a pre-emergent weed killer to prevent warm-season weeds.
• Regularly mow your lawn at recommended heights (St. Augustine and Bahia: 3 to 4 inches; Centipede: 1.5 to 2 inches; Dwarf St. Augustine: 2.5 inches).