Spring is Knocking on the Door! What to Do in the Garden at the Turn of February and March?
Plan Your Garden Beds and Buy Seeds
If you haven't yet started improving your crop rotation plans during the cold months, late winter offers an ideal opportunity to catch up and step into the new season with perfect preparation. This will save you a lot of work and worry later. Browse through the wide range of seeds at Pěstík, where you'll find seeds for vegetables, herbs, and flowers.
There's Still Time for Pre-Growing Vegetables and Ornamental Annuals
You probably won't manage to pre-grow celery anymore, but for tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, watermelons, and many others, the right time is up until mid-March. You can also grow seedlings of many types of ornamental flowers such as marigold, gazania, or China aster. Growing your own seedlings is appealing, but you must provide the plants with suitable conditions, which primarily include sufficient light, correct temperature (depending on the specific species' requirements, between 15 and 20 °C), higher air humidity (around 50%), and quality growing medium. If the conditions on your windowsill aren't optimal, it may be safer to purchase seedlings from a garden center.
Wait for Warmer Weather Before Starting First Bed Sowings
Depending on the weather, you can begin direct sowing of the hardiest vegetable varieties, which include carrots, radishes, parsley, spinach, peas, early lettuce, or dill. When temperatures warm up a bit and daytime temperatures start reaching around 15°C, get started right away. Your young plants will have greater security in the beginning with plastic film cover or coverage with white fleece fabric.
Your Greenhouse Needs Spring Cleaning
Prepare your greenhouse for spring as well. Ventilate thoroughly and clean everything carefully. Wash the glass or polycarbonate panels, remove all plant debris and weeds. If you've had the growing substrate in your greenhouse for several years, it's time to replace it with new. Alternatively, at least dig over the beds and add fertilizer. If there's still white cover on the garden, you can throw snow onto the greenhouse beds. Water from melted snow benefits the soil.
Support Summer Flowering of Ornamental Shrubs
Some shrubs need to be pruned in early spring so they bloom beautifully and abundantly in summer. This category includes species that flower on current year's growth. For others, cutting back could actually mean fewer flowers. Before reaching for your pruning shears, research more information about your particular shrub. Pruning benefits shrubs such as Buddleja davidii (though this doesn't apply universally to all Buddleja), lavender, Japanese spirea, panicle hydrangea, black chokeberry, or shrubby cinquefoil.
Don't Forget to Prune Your Currants
Currant bushes should be pruned regularly at the end of winter when the hardest frosts have passed. Since the correct procedure differs for individual currant species, many gardeners gradually mark individual shoots over the years to distinguish their age. With blackcurrants, the most productive branches are two to three years old, while with red and white currants, you'll get the biggest harvests from branches that are two to five years old. Generally, older branches have a darker bark surface compared to young ones. In any case, remove all damaged parts of the bush. Apply grafting wax or similar suitable protection to the cut surfaces.
Fruit Trees Are Still Sleeping, But...
As a prevention against fungal and other diseases, rake up all remaining leaves or fruits under fruit trees. If you're planning to plant new trees in spring, dig the holes in advance. This will benefit the future tree and the completed work will come in handy at the moment when you won't know where to jump first in spring. If you do everything yourself in the garden, you can also graft cherries, sour cherries or apricots at the end of February. Scions can be taken at this time from apple and pear trees, which have also reached the right time for pruning.
Wake Up Your Geraniums from Winter Sleep
Overwintering geraniums should first be cut back by about a third and moved to a sufficiently bright location. Repotting will certainly do them good. Fresh substrate and slight root trimming will quickly kickstart their growth.