Don Davis: Plenty to do in the garden

Gardeners looking for something to do will be pleased now that February is here. There are garden chores to complete as you prepare for spring.

Pruning is an essential task for the fruit trees in your yard, and the preferred season for pruning starts this month. The job could involve hand shears, loppers and a saw.

Most fruit trees need to be thinned. This is a matter of cutting out selected branches to allow space for light and air to move through the tree canopy.

Other pruning is done to keep the trees’ vertical growth under control. The technique used is heading back. Your goal is to shorten the tallest branches, and make each cut just above a twig or branch that is growing outward rather than inward.

Damson plums have special pruning needs. Any branches with the unsightly galls caused by black knot disease must be removed and destroyed. Black knot is the main reason why plums, both ornamental and fruiting kinds, are short-lived trees.

Fruits of all kinds are planted in March so that their roots can start getting established before hot weather settles over the area. February is therefore the time to plan your fruit gardens, locate sources of the varieties you want to grow and place your orders.

You can sow seeds outdoors in February if the weather is mild and soil conditions are not too wet. The vegetables to start seeding outdoors are English pea, radish, turnip, mustard, spinach, lettuce, radish and onion sets.

Indoors under fluorescent lamps it is time to start growing transplants to set out in your garden around April 1. These crops include parsley, rosemary, oregano, lettuce, endive, escarole and cole crops (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, etc.)

Wild saplings transplant well at this time of year. Small dogwoods, red buds and red cedars can be moved from one place to another with great success. The key is to dig and move trees about knee-high.

Days are getting longer and sap is rising in shrubbery and trees. Do not be surprised if you see evidence of yellow-bellied sapsucker activity.

These members of the woodpecker family have their favorite trees, among them maple, magnolia and apple. They peck a ring or line of holes in tree bark and then lap up the sap flowing out. Although sapsuckers cause unsightly sap loss, it is not a real problem for most of the plants involved.

Winter weeds are poised to shoot out of the ground as soon as the weather warms up. They are now young and easy to control, so you could nip them in the bud by mulching, cultivating or pulling them up by the roots.

All of them came here from Europe and Eurasia. Their names are henbit, red deadnettle, hairy bittercress and speedwell.

Davis is an Extension Agent for the Virginia Cooperative Extension. He can be reached by calling 455-3740.