Claudette Sims – Halton Master Gardener
❑ Houseplants – Increase water and feeding as plants start actively growing.
❑ Amaryllis – After the flowers have faded, cut the flower stalk to within 1″ of the top of the bulb. Give plants a maximum of sun and feeding to produce a large healthy bulb & flowers for next year. More info here!
❑ Start seeds indoors for broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower etc.
❑ Read “A Seed-Starters Glossary” from the ‘LaidBack Gardener’
❑ Winter Sowing – Start leaf lettuce seeds outside in cold frames or large recycled clear, covered containers.
❑ Lawn –Read Dundas resident Tara Nolan’s new book: Gardening your Front Yard and see if you can reduce your front lawn size by 1 sq meter this year!
❑ Dahlia, calla, canna etc. – Check those stored bulbs one last time for rot or signs of disease. Spray lightly if bulbs are dry or shrivelled.
❑ Pruning – Use clean, sharp tools. Cut back branches to just above another branch or a bud. Remove dead, damaged, diseased wood. Do NOT prune spring flowering shrubs such as forsythia & lilac until after flowering.
❑ Apple, cherry, plum, pear trees – Prune before flower buds swell. Remove any dead, diseased twigs and prune for open shape. Pear trees generally don’t require pruning, except for shaping.
❑ Evergreens – Prune for health, and to shape only if needed.
❑ Arbovitae, junipers and chamaecyparis –will not form new buds on old wood. So if you cut back to the brown, aged stems, it won’t grow back. How to prune video here!
❑ Firs, Douglas firs, spruces – learn how to prune and remove multiple leaders and encourage growth here!
❑ Raspberries –prune your summer-bearing raspberries now, cutting last year’s fruiting canes down to about 10 cm. Leave the young canes to bear a crop this July.
❑ Blueberries – Early March, prune out dead, damaged, diseased wood to an open shape to increase air circulation. More info here about blueberries.
❑ Bird houses– Clean and repair bird houses for spring nesters.
Read MORE from Halton Master Gardeners Monthly Newsletter ‘Cross-Pollination‘
Halton Region Master Gardeners 