• Avoid heavy traffic on dormant lawns to prevent damage.
• Spreading wood ashes in your garden raises the pH of your soil.
• Read horticultural magazines and garden books for ideas.
• Begin to plan your garden by going through seed catalogs and magazines.
• When starting seed, cover the flat with a clear plastic wrap to keep the seeds warm and moist.
• Feed the birds regularly and see that they have water. Recycle your holiday decorations.
• Start seeds of celery, celeriac, sweet Spanish onion, parsley, anise, fibrous rooted begonia, snap-dragon, verbena, geranium, and petunia now.
• Firmly press down any plants that have lifted and cover with at least 2 inches of organic mulch.
• If your bulbs show growth, thicken the mulch layer as soon as cold weather returns to prevent damage.
• Sterilize your tools, pots, and anything you use around your plants. Use one part household bleach to nine parts water. Soak for about 15 minutes, rise, and let dry.
• Overhaul your garden sprayer. Inspect leather washers and the plunger and replace any worn parts.
• Protect liquid insecticides from cold weather to preserve their effectiveness.
• Examine the limb structure of your shade trees. Remove dead, diseased, and storm-damaged branches.
• Prop up ice covered branches and let the ice melt rather than try to remove it from brittle branches.
• Don't delay planting a live Christmas tree, especially if it has already been in the house three days or more.
• When pruning large limbs, always undercut first.  Do not cut flush to the trunk, the collar or enlarged base of a branch produces hormones that help heal wounds.
• Vines that are strangling trees, such as bittersweet, wisteria, wild grape, poison ivy, Virginia creeper, and Japanese honeysuckle, should be cut off and removed.

February Gardening Tips

• Once a month, water your acid-loving house plants, such as gardenia and citrus, using a solution of 1 teaspoon of vinegar to 1 quart of water.
• Resume a fertilizer schedule for indoor plants.
• Air-layer such house plants as dracaena, dieffenbachia, fatsia, and rubber plant.
• Wash philodendron, dracaena and rubber plant to remove dust and grime.
• Be sure the indoor garden is well ventilated, yet not drafty.
• On mild, sunny days be sure to ventilate cold frames and greenhouses to avoid a buildup of excessive heat.
• When foliage of spring bulbs is 1 inch high, gradually start removing mulch.
• Check stored bulbs, tubers, and corms. Discard any that are soft or diseased.
• Don't remove mulch from perennials too early. A warm day may make you think spring is almost here, but there may be more cold weather yet to come.
• Repair and paint window boxes, lawn furniture, and other items in preparation for outdoor use.
• Broadleaved evergreens can be pruned before new growth begins this spring. 
• Prune roses back 25 percent if you want many, medium-sized blooms. Prune back 50 percent if you want fewer, larger flowers.
• Prune most shrubs and trees on warm days this month after the coldest weather is past in your area.
• Late winter is the time to prune many deciduous trees. Remove dead, dying and crossing branches.