Monthly Garden To Do's

January

• Inspect stored bulbs and discard the bad ones
• Clean and sharpen garden tools
• Plan gardens for this year
• Try forcing some spring-flowering bulbs
• Order seeds
• Start geraniums and begonia seeds
• Inspect and treat house plants for white fly, spider mites, and aphids

February

• Plant your geranium seed indoors
• Take stem cuttings of your geraniums and fuchsias
• Plant impatiens, peppers, egg plants indoors
• Prune shade and fruit trees except maple and birch
• Visit your local greenhouse

March

• Start your tomatoes indoors (late March early April)
• Order summer-flowering bulbs
• Cut down ornamental grasses
• Prune summer-flowering shrubs (eg Hydrangea)
• Plant flower & vegetable seeds indoors
• Prune fruit trees & grape vines
• Start summer flowers and tender perennials (tuberous begonias, canas, calas and caladiums in pots)
• Apply dormant spray (non-freezing temperatures, before buds open)
• Loosen packed mulch and press back frost heaved perennials
• Check and repair garden tools
• Cut some spring flowering shrub branches for forcing inside

April

• Prepare annual beds and add compost to perennial borders
• Remove rose protection and move dormant shrubs
• Plant cold weather vegetable seeds in the garden
• Repair lawn with compost, seed, rake & fertilize (late April early May)
• Plant shrubs, trees, hedges
• Remove rose mulch a little at a time, prune
• Plant early vegetables (peas, onions, radish, beets)
• Treat birches against leaf miner
• Plant larkspur and calendulas outdoors
• Check out garden shows
• Cut lawn only if necessary
• Open pond
• Begin to move ornamental grasses and perennials

May

• Harden off your seedlings
• Treat for slugs, aphids, and Blackspot if necessary
• Deadhead tulips and daffodils, leaving the foliage to die back naturally
• Plant trees and shrubs
• Plant tender summer-flowering bulbs (glads, canas, dahlias)
• Transfer bedding annuals to outdoor cold frame to harden
• Check trees for tent caterpillars & other insects
• Prune shrubs & trees after flowering - stake and tie as required
• Find average last date for frost and add two weeks to transplant tender flowers (petunias etc.)
• Begin to remove weeds
• Take notes and photos of bulb plantings for later changes
• Deadhead faded tulips and daffodils (leave foliage to feed the bulb)
• Weed gardens, and apply mulch
• Cage peonies

June

• Plant annuals and tender perennials
• Thin vegetable seedlings and weed
• Deadhead flowers after blooming
• Pinch back mums, snapdragons, asters, dahlia and other late bloomers
• Prune evergreens & hedges if necessary
• Use grass clippings & compost on garden to conserve moisture & control weeds
• Thin out crowded vegetables & annuals
• Irrigate lawns & gardens as required
• Stake/cage dahlias, tomatoes, gladiolas
• Seed directly fast growers such as calendula, cosmos, lavatera, marigolds
• Prepare cuttings of shrubs for propagation
• Prune shrubs and trees after flowering
• Seed flowering kale outdoors
• Weed and water as necessary

July

• Prune spring-flowering shrubs after they are finished blooming
• Stake plants that tend to fall over (Delphiniums, Euphorbia, tall Sedums) and pinch back as necessary
• Fertilize vegetables and annuals
• Raise cutting height of mower blade
• Pinch back annuals to make bushier
• Cut out raspberry canes & narrow rows to 40 cm
• Mow lawn, weed, water as necessary
• Trim back strawberry plants after fruiting
• Transplant kale
• Turn compost
• Deadhead and trim perennials as necessary

August

• Plant fall vegetable seeds
• Order spring-flowering bulbs
• Trim and divide irises
• Make a garden structure
• Divide and move peonies and oriental poppies
• Prune climbing roses
• Order flowering bulbs for fall (try colchicum for next fall)
• Spray shrubs & perennials for powdery mildew control
• Water and weed as necessary
• Plant fall-flowering perennials
• Dry flowers and herbs

September

• Trim and divide perennials
• Prepare and seed new lawns
• Plant evergreens
• Plant spring-flowering bulbs
• Prepare & seed new lawns
• Plant shrubs & evergreens
• Renovate perennial border
• Take cuttings from geraniums & coleus
• Bring in houseplants before its too cold
• Fertilize and aerate lawns as required
• Water well all evergreens

October

• Dig, dry and store summer-flowering bulbs
• Rake leaves from lawn
• Prepare and dig new garden beds
• Put ponds to bed
• Cut off dead foliage
• Plant spring flowering bulbs (tulips, daffodils, crocus)
• Dig and store dahlias, gladiolus, tuberous begonias, canas
• Plant amaryllis for Christmas bloom
• Remove and distribute almost finished compost and gather leaves and add to compost pile
• Seed new lawns

 

November

• Fertilize lawn
• Make sure evergreens are well watered for winter
• Protect young trees from rodents
• Plant some spring bulbs for forcing

December

• Watch for bugs on houseplants (white flies, spider mites, and aphids)
• Protect your rose bushes
• Apply mulch
• Cut branches for winter decorations
• Order seed catalogues