Well we have made it to the middle of February with quite the unpredictable first couple weeks of the month! Looks like we will have another off temperature week with weather ranging from the 30’s to quite possibly the 70’s by the end of the week!! There are plenty of landscaping jobs that you can tackle during the colder Winter months.
If there is a mild day in the forecast you can use the temperatures in your favor to go outside and do some pruning. With shrubs bare of leaves be sure to imagine foliage coverage when tackling reshaping. Any twig sprouts are easily recognized and can be trimmed to match the shape of the shrub. While you are wandering about your garden be on the lookout for your redbud, crabapple, witch hazels or pussy willow to have buds, now is the time to cut and force the branches for home decoration. Let the cut branches soak in cold water for a few hours and then arrange in a vase, over the next few days watch as the buds begin to open.
As many more of these recent February cold and snow days are appearing there are still indoor tasks to get you through the last of the winter months. Check on bulbs you dug up during the fall, uncover and check to see if they are still firm and healthy looking. With any sign of mildew the bulb should be tossed. You can also start some seeds of slow growing plants such as onions, but don’t start other seeds or they will be ready far ahead of any frost free date and cause them to become leggy and can result in diseases; wait at least 6-8 weeks prior to the frost free date, which typically for us Missourians is the beginning of May.
Now is also the perfect time to reach out to your favorite landscape designers to help plan the upcoming seasons landscape for you, and being that you are reading our post…..hopefully you will be calling us!! If you are a returning customer, one of the benefits that Landscape Concepts offers to you is Spring Cleanup Maintenance where we will spray a pre-emergent to treat weed control among beds, re-mulch any beds that you have installed, pre-Spring pruning, and leaf clean-up. If you are in need of a new design plan for your home remember we do begin to get booked out 6-8 weeks and we are already scheduling April plantings, so the earlier you contact us, the earlier your project will be complete!
