Whether its sunny or rainy, some things can be done to prepare for this years vegetable harvest. In dry spells, shallots, onion sets and garlic can be planted outside.
Inside, some seed can be started such as cilantro, sweet onions, winter leeks, chard and cold-tolerant lettuce such as Winter Density or Black Seeded Simpson.
Gardeners who have the space and time to nurture tomato and/or pepper seedlings can start this seed as well in February. Tomato plants grow very fast and if started early usually need a couple of repotting sessions before being planted outside in mid-May. An early start results in many more tomatoes over a longer harvest period.
Seed-starting inside works best if you encourage germination by standing the filled seed pots in a warm place. This could be a refrigerator top or a gardeners heat mat. The pots should be covered with newspaper or plastic to hold in moisture.
Once seedlings are up, they should be placed in a bright windowsill, or under a plant light. By early March, even an unheated greenhouse will suit most early seedlings (though not tomatoes and peppers).
Coastal gardeners can plant radishes, peas, broad beans, arugula and parsley outside towards the end of February. But gardeners in the eastern Fraser Valley may need to hold back at least until mid-March.
Seed planted when soil is too cold refuses to germinate. While it waits for better conditions, it may rot due to fungal problems or become a meal for voles, mice and other hungry critters.
When outside gardening is impossible, its useful to spend an hour or so planning crop rotation. Vegetables should always be planted in a different spot to the place where a crop of the same kind grew the previous year. This reduces pest problems and keeps soil nutriments in balance.
Legumes like beans and peas, for instance, are soil improvers. They absorb nitrogen from the air and store it underground in root nodules. Where beans and peas have grown, cabbages are a good succession crop because they absorb the nitrogen that was stored by the beans and peas.
When cabbages have been harvested, root crops such as carrots, beets and parsnips can be planted in the old cabbage bed. Root crops need very little nitrogen. The next year the bed could revert to bean or pea plantings, or the soil could be enriched for a heavy feeder such as corn, zucchini or squash.
Wherever the soil has been exposed, February is a good time to spread compost especially in places where heavy feeders such as beets, spinach, tomatoes, kale, zucchini or cucumbers will be grown.
If you have moss on your vegetable garden, its a sign that the soil is acidic and most vegetables will do better if lime is added to the soil. The exception is potatoes, which like acidic conditions.
Wherever winter rye has been planted, February is the time that top growth should be cut down and composted. The roots can be dug into the soil where theyll decay and vanish in about three weeks.
Unfortunately, weeds are already growing. Weeding priorities include buttercups, which have huge, resilient roots and winter cress which seeds while still very tiny.
Anne Marrison is happy to answer garden questions. Send them to [email protected].
