Gardeners Checklist: Here is What To Do on the Week of Feb. 26

By Ron Kujawski

Leap into these tasks:

• Get out the pruning saws and shears.  It’s time to begin pruning fruit trees, grape vines, and blueberries. Annual pruning of most fruit plants is essential if they are to remain productive. 

• Plan to take in a flower show, including the BBG’s annual Bulb Show; March is flower show month. There’s bound to be one within easy traveling distance, even for those with only a horse and buggy.  Flower shows are not just for viewing pretty flowers, but the educational programs, new plant and product displays, landscape exhibits, and book, plant, and tool sales are sure to get the gardening juices flowing.

• Build a cold frame. Simple plans for cold frames can be found in many gardening books, on the Internet, or from a fellow gardener who has built one.  Cold frames do not have to be elaborate.  One of my cold frames is rebuilt every year by stacking cement blocks and covering it with old storm windows. In a few weeks, that cold frame will be filled with flats of onions, leeks, lettuce, and other cold hardy crops. They’ll remain in the cold frame until garden soils are workable, at which time they’ll be ready for transplanting. Cold frames can also be set out in the garden and act as mini-greenhouses for direct seeding of leafy greens and root crops this month.

•Carefully examine houseplants, especially potted herbs, for mites and insects. It may be a coincidence but I notice that pest problems on indoor plants seem to increase as days get longer and sunlight is more intense.  It could be for no other reason than the fact that many of these plants are now beginning to put out some new growth. Mites and insects love this new succulent growth. Use insecticidal soap or neem oil as directed on the product label for controlling these pests.

• Mix a diluted solution of houseplant fertilizer and apply it to houseplants that are showing signs of new growth.  Scratching a granulated organic fertilizer or pellets of a slow-release fertilizer into the top inch of soil is another option for fertilizing houseplants.

• Cull stored onions that have sprouted. I potted up several of these a few weeks ago and am now cutting the shoots for use in recipes that call for green onions, scallions, or chives.  When potting the soft, sprouting onion bulbs, leave about two-thirds of each bulb exposed above ground. Otherwise, the bulbs tend to rot.

Ron Kujawski began gardening at an early age on his family's onion farm in upstate New York. Although now retired, he spent most of his career teaching at the UMass Extension Service. He serves on Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Horticulture Advisory Committee. His book, Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook, is available here.