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Monthly To Do Lists
January
• Spend time going over your seed catalogues and plan your garden.

• Plant fruit trees.

• Plant trees, shrubs and vines as long as the ground isn’t frozen.

• Apply dormant spray to fruit trees when you anticipate 24 hours of dry weather.

• Make sure that any leaves or broken branches are off the lawn.

• Prune out any broken or damaged branches.

• Check your houseplants: divide and re-pot any pot-bound plants. Prune judiciously to create a compact, attractive specimen.

• Succulents – jade, hoya, sansevieria—may be reluctant to bloom in the house. Grow them in a small pot and hold back the water. This may persuade them to flower.

• Start a Garden Record Chart now allowing space to record the dates of First Frost; Last Frost; Sowing Seeds; Planting Trans-planting; Time of Bloom; First Fruits; Problems with pest, and Other Information.

• Make a careful study this month of three important garden subjects: fertilizers, spraying and best seed varieties.

Start some annual flowers at the end of this month,( ie marigolds, sweet peas, impatiens, petunias and snapdragons).

 
February
Clean up your flower beds. Cut down perennials that were not cut down in the fall. Cut down ornamental grasses.

Weed
Lime your lawn and your garden (plants that like lime). Either two weeks before or after liming, feed your soil with compost/ manure/ seaweed/ leaf mulch.

Lift and divide perennials.
Feed hydrangeas with compost or manure.
Pot up geranium cuttings.

Spray deciduous trees, fruit trees and shrubs with dormant oil / lime sulphur. Inspect plants for insect eggs. Pick them off and destroy them.

Prune
• Sharpen, clean and oil your tools.
• Prune ornamentals after flowering.
• Now- prune dogwoods, willows, evergreen shrubs, butterfly bushes, hardy fuschias, summer flowering clematis, fruit trees, and cane fruits.
• Prune out 3 D’s- dead, damaged and diseased.
• Prune out crossing branches or branches growing into the center.
• Prune out no more than 30% at once.
• Prune grapes. Trim the oldest wood leaving only the primary stems with three to four stems each.

Seed
• Lettuce can be seeded in unheated greenhouse or cold garage by the window from mid-Feb. onwards. When it is 1 to 2 inches it can be grown on outdoors off the ground.
• Peas can be seeded now under protection in used gutters. Plants can be transplanted when they are 4 to 6 inches tall.
• As soon as the ground warms up kale, spinach, coriander, mache, and mesclun can be sown. (Rows north to south)
• In late Feb. onions and leeks can be sown in unheated greenhouses or cold frames or two weeks later outdoors.
• Radishes and shallots can be sown outdoors.
• Sweet peas can be sown outdoors.

Plant
• Plant trees/ shrubs/ and bare root roses.
• Plant lily bulbs

March
Clean up your flower beds. Cut down perennials that were not cut down in the fall. Cut down ornamental grasses.

Weed.

Lift and divide perennials and plant new ones.

Deadhead and feed spring bulbs when they have finished blooming.

Feed rhubarb with organic material.

Pot up rooted cuttings and over wintered tuberous begonias.

Prune
• Sharpen, clean and oil your tools.
• Prune ornamentals after flowering.
• Prune grey leafed plants like lavender and senecio.
• Prune hybrid tea and floribunda roses. Feed with organic fertilizer.
• Prune established herbs if necessary.

Seed
• Begin successive sowings of peas, spinach, leaf lettuce, Chinese
vegetables, onion sets, turnips and shallots.
• Sow tomatoes indoors.
• Seed or sod new lawns and repair old ones.

Plant
• Plant new strawberry plants.
• Plant annual herbs
April
Clean up your flower beds. Edge beds, and check for invading pests and diseases.

Weed.

Lift and divide perennials and plant new ones. Divide primroses and polyanthus after flowering. Stake perennials that need it and mulch perennials if not done.

Deadhead and feed spring bulbs when they have finished blooming. Leave seedheads on squills and grape hyacinths to seed themselves. Don’t remove foliage until yellow.

Feed rhododendrons before blooming.

Prune
• Rose pruning should be complete.
• Prune ornamentals after flowering.
• Shear winter flowering heathers after blooming.
• Evergreen and conifer hedges can be clipped now.
• Check vines on house to make sure they are not getting under shingles and framing.

Seed
• Continue to sow hardy annual seeds in ground.
• First half of the month sow green onions , bulb onion, early potatoes, cabbage and leeks.
• Later sow beets, carrots, Swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce.
• Sow zucchini, cucumbers and tomatoes indoors.

Plant
• Plant new strawberry plants.
• Plant trees and shrubs.

Information is from the Twelve Month Gardener - A West Coast Guide
May
Rose Garden Tips for May
1) Time to feed your roses! If you have not done this already, your roses will need a spring feeding. There are countless types of rose foods on the market, ours is best of course. I also love using Fish Fertilizer on roses. If you have given an April feeding of regular rose food, then May is a good time to give them a nice drink of stinky fish fertilizer.

2) Tidy up late pruning. This is the time of year that you may notice a few dry or dead rose canes . If they are not producing decent growth its best to prune out these dry dead shoots so the plants energy all goes into the nice clean wood and foliage

3) Water new roses and any that have been recently transplanted. New roses like any new plants are busy trying to establish themselves before the summer heat arrives. Even though we don’t feel the heat now, our plants do. Keep your new plants well watered even if the ground still has some moisture in it. Watering new plants is the very best way to make them grow.

4) Dig out the poorest roses and replace with new fresh plants. Oh boy I love this part of the job. If a rose doesn’t pay its rent, it’s OUTTTT. Shovel prune the weak plants that don’t look as though they will pay the rent this summer and plant some robust new roses. There’s still time to get them in early so that you wont have to worry about constant summer watering.

5) Mulch Mulch and more of it. May is an ideal time to ad a layer of compost or mulch to the garden. You may have done this already but if not, time to ad the mulch so that your roses stay cool and clean when summer arrives.
June

Rose Garden Tips for June - from Brad Jalbert of Select Roses

Water your spring planted or new roses during this month. Established roses are actually very drought tolerant but a new rose likes plenty of water to encourage lush clean healthy growth. A dry plant is much more prone to diseases such as powdery mildew than a rose with ample moisture at its feet. Water rather than fertilizer is the best way to help a new rose get a start in life.

2) Treat your roses with appropriate care for disease and insects. This includes good basic culture , removing of insects with simple things such as a blast of water from a hose, or the use of a safe pesticide. Remove any leaves that have signs of disease. (see about 100% Organic Neem oil and its benefits to plants).

3) Fish Fertilize your roses! I’m a huge fan of good quality liquid fish fertilizer for roses and other plants. You can use it as a foliar feed to boost the roses along or as a drench. We are now caring and using an outstanding BioFish fertilizer product
produced right here in Langley. The product line is called Organique. I’m using their fish fertilizers and other blends in our growing fields as well as the greenhouse and display beds. You will see the results when you visit the nursery this summer!
Outstanding and 100% organic. I’m truly impressed with their line of products. This is the best fish product that I have used and its the lowest price! That sure doesn’t happen often. It smells okay too!

4) Summer is rose time and if your roses are not doing well, kick them out! There are far to man superb roses, both old and new to enjoy growing. If disease was the issue, just pick one that is more resistant . If it just wasn’t smelly enough, well pick a smelly one this time around. See it’s easy, bye bye bad rose, hellooo to the new star of the garden. ( wink)
November

• Complete your bulb planting and dig up summer bulbs.

• Mulch borders with compost or manure after clean up.

• Remove leaves off cushion-type plant like dianthus and saxifrage to avoid plants rotting.

• Cut back chrysanthemums after they have finished flowering.

• Pot up geraniums and fuchsia storing them in frost free places. Once a month water them.

• Edge and weed flower beds.

• Plant bare root roses. Roses can have a light pruning after the final dead-heading. Apply dolomite lime around established roses.

• Plant berry bushes and fruit trees. Take cuttings of bush fruits and remove crossed and crowded branches.

• Add manure or compost to the freshly dug vegetable garden in preparation for spring planting.

• Plant garlic, shallots and wintering onions.

• Why not write for the free seed catalogues?

?? Water all your evergreen trees and shrubs really well before the first hard frost. Even with all the rain

we get even a few days without rain can dry out evergreens and lead to ‘winter burn’ or even death.

?? Stop fertilizing your indoor plants since they use less water and fertilizer because of lower light.