The Garden in February: what to plant in your zone 9 garden

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Central Florida Gardening: zone 9b

Here in my Central Florida, Zone 9b garden, February is beginning of the transition period between cool-season and warm-season crops. While there is still a little bit of time to plant some fast growing cool-season crops such as root crops, kale and lettuce, this is the month when most of your cool-season crops are finishing up and you should start transitioning warm-season crops into your garden.

While February is the perfect time to get your spring kitchen garden started in zone 9, it is also the ideal time to prune and fertilize perennials as well as plant new trees, shrubs and annuals in your landscape.

In this post I will go over the garden tasks you should be doing this month as well as provide a list of edible and flower crops that you can plant in the month of February.

Garden Tasks in the Month of February

Prepping Your Garden Beds

Whether you had a fall and winter garden or you gave your garden a rest and are starting your garden fresh this spring, now is a good time to amend your garden beds. Plants use up a lot of nutrients during the growing season so top your beds with fresh compost and amend with the necessary fertilizers before adding any new plants. It is always a good idea to get your soil tested once a year, fall or spring are good times to do this, to make sure you are adding the correct nutrients to your soil. Sometimes your soil can have an excess or depletion of certain nutrients so by testing your soil, it will help prevent any nutrient issues in the future. If you decide not to test your soil then I recommend adding an all purpose, organic, slow release fertilizer.

Starting Seeds

It is not too late to direct seed or plant transplants of fast growing cool-season crops such as radishes, carrots, beets, kale, swiss chard, mustards, peas and lettuce. Some seeds do better started indoors while others can be directly sown into the garden beds, if you are new to seed starting you can check out my Seed Starting 101 (Part 1): Direct Sow Vs Transplant post to learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of each method. I will also give a list of which crops to plant in February and the best methods of planting them a towards the end of this post. You can direct seed many of your fast growing warm-season crops in February such as corn, squash, cucumber, beans and melons. While it is usually safe to plant tender crops out after February 15th in zone 9b, there is always the chance that you could get a late frost into early March. So just make sure that you are able to cover your crops in the chance that we get a late frost. Unfortunately, it is a little bit of a gamble planting tender crops out now but it is necessary in order to get a good harvest in before the hot summer months come.

Now is also a good time to start your long season tender crops such as tomatoes, eggplant, and pepper seeds indoors if you have not already. These warm-season crops require a long growing season and most varieties of tomatoes do not typically do well in our hot summer months. It is a good idea to start them indoors in January or February in order to have them ready to plant into the garden by March 1st.

Planting

If you started any cool-season seeds indoors, January and February are the last months in which you need to get your cool-season transplants planted out. You will want to get these planted out as early in the month as possible in order to get good harvest before the summer heat arrives. Now that the weather is starting to warm up, cool-season crops will benefit from some afternoon shade. This will help to extend their growing season.

Now is also the ideal time to begin planting warm-season annuals, perennials, and roses, as well as add any new fruit trees and edible shrubs to your landscape.

Fertilizing

In addition to fertilizing your edible and cut flower garden monthly, now is the time when you want to start fertilizing the fruit trees and perennial plants in your landscape. You typically want to fertilize your perennials and trees 2-3 times a year, twice in the spring and once in the fall. Late February is the month when you will start to see new growth so it is the perfect time to give your plants a light feeding of a well balanced, all purpose fertilizer. I like to use Espoma Plant-Tone which is an organic, slow release fertilizer that is readily available near me. Synthetic fertilizers do not help your soil and can actually lead to a salt build up over time. Using an organic fertilizer is not only better for the environment but it naturally builds a healthy soil by feeding the microorganisms that inhabit it. This leads to a soil that is full of life making it so much more beneficial for your plants. You can also feed your plants by top dressing with compost, manure or worm castings. We have three bunnies which supply me with an endless amount of manure. Bunny manure is a natural fertilizer that does not need to be composted first and saves you money. So if you have some bunnies of your own then this is a great way to fertilize your plants.

The Peach trees begin blooming in February in the Central Florida garden.

Pruning

Late January and February are the best times to prune your fruit trees, roses and any frost damage from your perennials.

Prune your roses by cutting back about 1/3 of the old growth, removing any canes that are touching or crossing and either remove all of the foliage or at least any foliage that looks unhealthy. I personally like to prune my roses, remove all of the foliage and spray with copper fungicide to kill any fungi spores on the canes. I try to have this done before Valentines Day.

February is the time when you also want to prune your fruit trees before they break dormancy and start putting on new growth. Remove any dead, broken or diseased branches as well as crossing branches or water sprouts (shoots that develop on the trunk and branches). You also want to shape your fruit trees to keep them at a manageable size.

Once your perennials start putting on new growth it is safe to begin pruning and removing any frost damage as well.

Mulching

Mulching is a great way to suppress weeds, retain moisture for your plants and build your soil. Make sure to add a fresh layer of mulch around your plants, in your landscape beds and in your walkways before warmer weather comes and weeds get out of control.

Now is the time to harvest your cauliflower, like this Purple of Sicily Cauliflower.

Harvesting

Continue harvesting your cool-season crops this month. Broccoli, cabbage cauliflower and brussel spouts should start coming to an end as the warmer weather approaches. Broccoli and cauliflower are usually ready to harvest when the heads are around 6 inches in diameter, you will want to harvest them while the buds are still tight since warm temperatures will cause them to start bolting.

If you planted any cool-season flowers such as snapdragons, stock, ranunculus or anemones then these should start blooming by February and you can begin harvesting for bouquets.

Pest Control

As the weather begins to warm this month you may begin seeing an increase in pests or diseases. I personally do not like to spray anything, organic or not, unless absolutely necessary. Keeping a healthy and balanced ecosystem in your garden by planting lots of natives and pollinator friendly plants as well as avoiding any pesticides or herbicides is the ideal way to keep pests in check. If you need to resort to spraying make sure to use an organic option. I find that I need to spray roses and citrus trees with a horticulture oil or an organic fungicide once or twice a year to help control pests and fungal diseases that are a common problem for me in the spring and summer. The best practice to keeping pests and diseases in check is to inspect your plants often to remove any pests or eggs and treat any diseases that you find before they get out of control.

Crops to Grow this Month

Below are a list of vegetable, herb and flower crops that you can plant this month. You can direct seed fast growing cool-season vegetable crops such as root crops and lettuce but you will need to plant transplants for the ones that need a longer growing season. February is too late to start any cool-season vegetable or flower crops indoors that need a long growing season, you will already need to have transplants ready by this month or buy them from your local nursery.

Most warm-season crops can either be directly sown into the garden or started indoors. The ones listed with a (*) are ones that you want to either start indoors now if you haven’t already or buy transplants in order to have them ready to be planted into the garden by March 1st. These crops have a longer growing season so they need a head start before the hotter months of summer arrive.

Below are the recommend planting methods that you will see next to each crop. Most crops can be grown from seed whether you start them indoors or direct sow them into the garden. You can choose to buy your transplants from your local nursery or start you seeds indoors and transplant them into your garden once they’ve reached transplant size.

D = Direct Sow

T = Use Transplants

* = if growing from seed, start indoors or direct sow this month

Cool-Season Vegetable Crops

* February is the last month to direct sow or plant as transplants.

• Beets (D)

• Carrots (D)

• Celery (T)

• Kale (T)

• Kohlrabi (D/T)

• Lettuce (D/T)

• Mustards (D/T)

• Peas (D)

• Potato (D)

• Radishes (D)

• Swiss Chard (D/T)

• Turnip (D)

Warm-Season Vegetable Crops

• Beans (D)

• Corn (D) *

• Cucumber (D/T)

• Eggplant (T) *

• Melons (D/T)

• Okra (D/T)

• Peppers (T) *

• Sweet Potatoes (T)

• Winter & Summer Squash (D/T)

• Tomatoes (T) *

Herbs

While you can start most of your herbs from seed it is usually easier to buy them as transplants.

• Anise (D/T)

• Basil (D/T)

• Bay Laurel (T)

• Borage (D/T) *

• Chives (D/T) *

• Cilantro/Coriander (D/T) *

• Dill (D/T) *

• Fennel (D/T) *

• Ginger (rhizomes)

• Lemon Balm (T)

• Mint (T)

• Nasturtium (D/T) *

• Oregano (T)

• Rosemary (T)

• Sage (T)

• Thyme (T)

Cool-Season Flowers

* February is the last month to plant these as transplants.

• Alyssum (T)

• Baby’s Breath (T)

• Calendula (T)

• Dianthus (T)

• Pansy/Viola (T)

• Snapdragon (T)

• Stock (T)

Warm-Season Flowers

• Ageratum (T)

• Amaranthus (D/T)

• Celosia (D/T)

• Cosmos (D/T)

• Dahlia (D/T/Tubers) *

• Dusty Miller (T) *

• Forget-me-not (D/T) *

• Gazania (T) *

• Geranium (T)

• Gomphrena (D/T)

• Marigold (D/T)

• Tithonia (D/T)

• Torenia (T)

• Rudbeckia (D/T)

• Salvia (T)

• Scabiosa (D/T) *

• Sunflower (D)

• Verbena (T) *

• Zinnia (D/T)

There you have it, a list of garden tasks that you should complete this month as well as a list of plants that you can plant in your garden! I hope that this post inspired you and if you found this information valuable please share the love by sharing or pinning this post! Also, feel free to leave any questions or suggestions in the comments below! Happy planting!

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