February Garden Tasks

It’s cold outside and lawn and garden tasks are probably very low on your laundry list of things to do, but a little time spent now is well worth the effort in avoiding weeds and diseases later in the season.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
* Now’s the time to apply pre-emergent herbicides to your lawn and shrub beds.
For those of you with fescue lawns, weed & feed products are a convenient strategy for weed control. In our Bermuda grass and Zoysia grass lawns (warm season grasses), to avoid feeding the winter weeds, we want to delay fertilizer application until May, when the grass will actually be requiring and using fertilizer, and apply a pre-emergent herbicide in February or early March.

If you are seeing green in your Bermuda or Zoysia grass now, chances are it isn’t grass, but winter weeds. Take action now to kill these winter weeds, by applying a broadleaf herbicide such as 2, 4-D. As an alternative, provided the Zoysia or Bermuda lawn is still completely dormant , you can spot spray these winter weeds with roundup on a nice warm day. Never spray Roundup on your lawn if the grass is green and actively growing.
Now’s the time to get a head start on preventing summer weeds in your warm season grasses, by applying a pre-emergent herbicide such as benefin (Balan 2.5 Granule, pendimen thalin (Halts Crabgrass Preventer, Pendulum 69 DG), and bensulide, (Betasam, Presen, Betamec 4EC). Always read the label and be sure to apply the herbicide as accurately as possible for best results. Try to time the application of your pre-emergent before the Forsythias bloom in your neighborhood.
Remember that these products will not give full season control, and you will probably need to repeat application of your pre-emergent herbicide in 8 to 12 weeks.
For pre-emergent weed control for your shrub or ornamental landscape beds, try the pre-emergent herbicide Preen (active ingredient trifluralin).
* Late February is a good time for pruning trees and shrubs. Before pruning any shrubs, it is critical to know their time of bloom. Plants that bloom in the spring should not be pruned now, but after they flower. These include forsythia, weigelia, Lilac, and some varieties of roses that bloom only in the spring. They already have their flower buds set and pruning now would remove blooms. Plants that bloom all summer long will bloom on new or current season growth so you may prune these now. This includes plants such as abelia, althea, buddleia, clethra, and spireas.
You need to know when your rose bushes bloom to determine whether they need to be pruned now. Hybrid Tea roses that bloom all summer long may be pruned now to within 18”-24” of the ground. However, some climbing roses will repeat bloom and some are one shot wonders. Delay pruning on these until after they bloom. They won’t need a hard pruning so use a light hand on these.
The general rule for pruning plants is timing of their flowers.
Broadleaved evergreens that do not bloom can generally be pruned most any time, but use caution during extreme cold and extreme heat and do not cut them too severely.
Evergreen Azaleas will need to be pruned right after they bloom to avoid cutting off the next season’s blooms.
*Weed shrub beds and deadhead perennials.
*Plant trees and shrubs.
*Relocate deciduous plants to a different part of your garden. While plants are still semi-dormant is a wonderful time to give them a new home.
*Give your ornamental grasses a haircut. These can be cut back to the ground as close as you can. Be sure to look for new growth and don’t cut any green and growing foliage.
*Replace mulch as needed in shrub beds.
*Most perennials can be divided and moved now.