February Garden Chores & Tasks

Here are the February garden chores you can be doing in your northern fruit, vegetable, and flower gardens, including seed starting and basic yard care.

February is a hopeful time of year – it’s the end of winter and we can see spring on the horizon – at least the garden planning horizon.

The northern garden chores for this month are all about continuing to clean up and planning, but also getting some of your seeds started. And if you’d like to plant, it’s a great time to get some deals on bare root roses, shrubs and trees.

Of course everything you might get done outside hinges on the weather – I always like to take advantage of any mild days if I can!

Want all my best vegetable gardening tips and techniques to keep it simple and manageable? (Yes, it CAN be done!) Then grab my ebook, Vegetable Gardening The Easy Way, and you’ll be on your way to growing your own food without all the backbreaking work.

February Garden Chores

Vegetable & Fruit Garden:

• Traditional pea-planting date in the Pacific Northwest is president’s weekend, though most northern gardens should wait for March. (However, when compared with plantings done a month later in my PNW garden, there was no difference in size, so feel free to wait!).
• Till in any cover crops. Of course you know I don’t believe in tilling, so I would just cut down and gently turn over if you’re using cover crops.
• Cover unplanted raised beds and areas with black plastic to kill weeds in preparation for March and April planting.
• Prune berries, fruit trees, and blueberries.
• Prune and train grapes.
• You can try planting early spring greens in mild areas including spinach. In-ground if soil temperature is 50-60 degrees, or in a cold frame to harvest April to May.
• Fertilize overwintered onions and garlic w/blood meal or organic fertilizer.
• Fertilize perennial rhubarb and cover ground with mulch.

Flower Beds:

• Plant bare root roses, berries, and fruit trees.
• Prune deciduous summer blooming shrubs.
• Prune clematis and ornamental vines. (However, not ALL clematis – go here to see which type to prune now.)

Seed Starting Inside:

• You can sow broccoli, early cauliflower, and early cabbage (aka, cole crops) seeds indoors for planting out in March.
• Start tomato seed indoors late in the month.
• Start peppers now which take longer to germinate and grow than tomatoes. TIP: Sowing them in 4-inch pots to transplant out late May means one less transplant to do.
• Start parsley and autumn leeks.

TIP: You can find all my seed-starting tips and tricks in this series-

1. Vegetable Garden 101: How to Start Plants from Seeds
2. Vegetable Garden 101: Caring For Seedlings at Week 1
3. Vegetable Garden 101: Caring for Seedlings at Week 6

Note: This February garden chores list is not comprehensive by any means, but meant to provide a jumping-off point to organizing your garden chores. Feel free to print the list and add any of your own specific chores to the sections.

You can see all the month-by-month garden chores lists here.

Need more easy gardening tips?

• Organic Vegetable Gardening 101
• How to Plant a Garden the Easy Care Way
• 5 Steps to Take Now For Your Best Garden Ever (with Free Printables!)