In general, February is a quiet month for gardens and a good time to catch up on gardening chores you put off during January. Most of the projects listed in last month's column can still be started in February, but by the end of this month (if not sooner) you should have finished your winter pruning and bare-root planting.
* WINTER PRUNING: Pruning of deciduous trees should be finished by the middle of February. If you wait any longer, you may be removing buds as well as branches.
* PRUNING ROSE BUSHES: We recommend holding off on heavy pruning of your roses until the end of this month and into early March. Choosing the best time to prune roses is extremely difficult. It should be done two weeks before the buds appear, and not even Houdini can accurately predict when that might be. Next month we will feature an article on pruning roses.
* COLD-MOIST STRATIFY SEEDS: There is still time to cold-stratify seeds for sowing indoors in March. Check seed packets and gardening books for information on whether a particular seed needs to be cold stratified, as well as for how long, and plan your cold-stratifying and sowing dates around this information. The seeds need to be placed in a sterile growing medium such as peat moss or vermiculite (although paper towels also work), and kept moist.
* PLANT BARE-ROOT TREES: Remember to provide a large enough hole for your tree. It may seem like a lot of extra work at planting time, but in two or three years your tree's roots will have outgrown a smaller planting hole. This is especially true if you have heavy clay soil or caliche deposits, and if you added improved soil only to that small space, the roots will have trouble growing beyond the confines of the initial hole. The tree may appear healthy for those two or three years, and then mysteriously begin to decline. The larger the tree will be at full size, the larger its root system will need to be, and the larger you should make your planting hole.
* PREPARE SPRING PLANTING BEDS: Break up and prepare the soil in new planting beds, adding soil amendments and organic matter, compost, or well-rotted manure.
* CLEAN AND REPAIR DRIP IRRIGATION SYSTEMS: Check hoses for leaks and emitters for clogged ends.
* FINALIZE SPRING GARDEN PLANS: Begin collecting seeds for spring (cool season) vegetable gardens. Decide if you'll want any major changes in your landscape or garden this year. Spend some time thinking about your gardens and how you might solve any problems you had last year.
* KEEP WATERING: In an arid environment, it is risky to set watering guidelines; so much depends on the type of plant, how long it has been in your garden, the amount of rain we've had, wind, sun, and soil and whether you deep water. The most foolproof method to watering is to check each plant with a soil probe or metal rod. Press the probe into the soil around your tree as far down as it will go. The easier the probe moves through the soil, the moister the soil is. If you get strong resistance in the first foot or two of soil around your trees, they need deep watering. They will probably need deep watering at least once a month throughout the winter.