Monthly Gardening Calendar
Sharon Morrisey, Consumer Horticulture Agent
University of Wisconsin-Extension in Milwaukee Co.

Ground Hogs' Day on February 2 means winter is half over.  Only 6 more weeks until spring is officially here!  However, gardeners and their plants know that spring seldom arrives on time in Wisconsin.

Most February gardening is indoors.  Start vegetable and flower seeds indoors with supplemental lighting and heat mats to warm the soil.  Pot up sprouting canna lilies, tuberous begonias, and dahlias that are in storage in the basement. Clean up your houseplants but don’t transplant or prune them until the longer, sunnier days of March and April encourage new growth.  Enjoy Valentine's flowers and gift plants.  Force a hyacinth bulb suspended in a glass of water for the fragrance that will fill the house.

Use the numbers in parenthesis after calendar entries for even more gardening information.  They are topic numbers for the UW-Extension InfoSource.  In the metro Milwaukee area, call (414) 290-2450 and follow the instructions. Leave your name and address at the end of the recording to receive a free brochure of all 400-plus topics.  Select topic #791 to hear the daily Dial-A-Garden-Tip that features a different message each day of the year.

Another source of reliable gardening information is the UW-Extension gardening website at www.uwex.edu/ces/wihort.  University Extension specialists and agents provide a wealth of information and links to other reliable sites.

Visit the UW-Extension SouthEast Wisconsin Master Gardener volunteers at their booth at the Home, Garden and Landscape Show at the Waukesha Expo Center, February 21 - 24th.  There will be hands-on demonstrations and personal gardening advise available.

First Week

Snow and ice are still a reality. Use sand or cat litter rather than salt to melt ice along sidewalks and driveways to prevent soil and plant damage. Do not use granular fertilizer either because excessive amounts of it, too, can damage plants. It also pollutes lakes and rivers as it runs off paved surfaces and frozen ground. For this reason never fertilize on frozen ground or over the snow.

Plan this year's vegetable and flower gardens especially now if you intend to start anything from seed. Order seeds early for the newest introductions since supplies are usually limited.

Plan to plant extra so you can "Harvest For The Hungry". For an information package and a complimentary pack of seeds, call the Second Harvest Food Bank at 931-7400 ext. 208. They can also help you find a food pantry or meal site near your home where you can donate your excess fresh, garden grown produce to others in your community in need.

If you need more space to garden, contact your county's UW-Extension office about rental garden locations. In Milwaukee County, call 290-2405.

Prepare for starting seeds indoors by gathering supplies and equipment. The three most crucial elements for successful seed starting are using sterile media, arranging for supplemental light and providing bottom heat of about 70 degrees. Be sure fluorescent fixtures and bulbs are compatible since the newer low-wattage tubes will overheat in old fixtures. Lights should be adjustable so they may be moved to keep them within 4 - 6 inches of the tops of the seedlings as they grow.

Plan to get your children into the garden this year. Start with projects indoors like a pan of grass for their Easter baskets or oats for the cat. Start a sweet potato or an avocado pit. If you have supplemental lighting, plant a tub of lettuces and garlic cloves and herbs.

On nice days, get outdoors to survey your trees and shrubs looking for evidence of feeding of rabbits, mice, and deer. Check snow covered leaf litter and untrimmed grass at the base of young fruit trees and ornamentals. It is not too late to use spray repellents or to install tree guards or chicken wire cages around your plants.

With two weeks left until Valentine's Day, its time to start forcing those spring flowering bulbs you've been keeping chilled. The little bulbs like crocus, hyacinth, and scilla should have received 8 weeks of chilling whereas tulips and daffodils need 12 - 14. If you chilled your bulbs without potting them up, do so now. Then keep them at 55 - 60 degrees in a dark place for 2 weeks to allow roots to form. Then bring them out into a warmer, brighter location to start growth and flowering. If rooting and/or sprouting have already begun, simply pot them up, water them and place them in a sunny location.  

Second Week

Visit your local library to begin researching that backyard pond you have been longing for.

Remove built-up dust and grime from the leaves of houseplants with a shower. Plants with large leaves can be wiped clean by hand with a cloth or a pair of clean, soft gloves. Use one hand on the upper surface and one below. Water works just fine to clean and shine leaves. Some leaf polish products contain oils which will clog leaf pores.

Indoor foliage plants are still said to be "resting" because light levels are low,daylength is short and temperatures are cool. Plants do not use as much water or fertilizer under these conditions so be careful not to over water. Cool, wet soil will cause root rot. Put off transplanting, too, until April when brighter conditions will promote more vigorous growth.

Turning the compost pile can be done whenever it isn't frozen solid. Snow provides some moisture and the composting process can continue, although slowly, all winter long.

Check stored cannas, dahlias, tuberous begonias, and gladiolus. Pot up ones that have sprouted and grown a couple of inches or find a cooler spot to hold them a little longer. Buy new tubers and roots now to start indoors for planting once the danger of frost has passed.

Third Week

Start seeds for the very first vegetable crop now - onions. Keep the foliage cutback to about 4" until time to transplant outdoors in April. Use what you clip off in salads to add some zip.

Cloves of garlic can be planted in pots indoors to sprout for zesty seasoning.

Sow seeds indoors for impatiens, begonias, petunias, nemesia, dusty miller, and snapdragons.

Fresh cut Valentine's bouquets should be placed in warm water with floral preservative after having the stem ends recut. Wash vases with soap and water every time you replace the water. Remove any foliage that is below water level to prevent rot and clogging of stems. Place vase in a cool location (down to 35 degrees) for at least one hour or overnight so that they can rehydrate before bringing into room temperature.

Drooping roses can be revived by laying them, completely submerged in warm water and recutting the stem ends under water. Leave them in the water to rehydrate for a half hour before returning them to the vase.

Start garden woodworking projects like coldframes, trellises, arbors and benches. A makeshift but functional coldframe can be set up using a few bales of straw on which an old wooden storm window can be propped. Slide back the window to vent heat on sunny days being certain to close it again before sundown.

Fourth Week

Being the end of the dormant season, now is the best time to prune most woody landscape plants and fruit trees. You can delay pruning birch, maple, black walnut, and elm since these tend to "bleed" when sap starts to move again due to snow melt and thawing soil. The dripping sap does not harm the trees, however.

You can also delay pruning of spring flowering plants like forsythia, lilac, and crabapple until after bloom if you can't bear to lose flowerbuds through pruning.

Bring in cut branches from early spring flowerers like forsythia, flowering almond, pussywillow, quince, crabapple, cherry, and Corneliancherry dogwood to force flower buds to open indoors.

Seed of larkspur, nigella, and poppies can be sown directly in bare ground to germinate as soon as conditions allow.

Keep feeding the birds until spring bloom since they have come to depend upon you for food. Even greater success at attracting birds to your property can be assured by providing a fresh source of water at all times. This must be kept free of ice and available until spring thaw. Stake up a discarded Christmas tree near a feeder for protective cover but far enough away that dogs and cats can't hide there to ambush your feathered friends at the feeder.