Hi listeners. I am Colleen Dieter, landscape consultant and certified arborist at ATXGardens.com. Welcome to the ATXGardens Podcast, where every other week I share simple, timely tips for what to do in your Central Texas garden right now. If you're watching on YouTube, tap like and subscribe for more gardening help.

Hey there, gardening friends. Today we're talking about what to do in the second half of February, and I think it may be the busiest time for gardeners. It’s the kickoff to our early spring season, so strap in, because we have a lot to talk about in this episode. And of course, today’s episode is sponsored by my landscape consulting business, ATXGardens.com. Let’s jump in.

On the last episode, I talked about the ice storm and the extreme cold that we had. It got into the teens in most parts of Central Texas, down to about 16 degrees. The good news is it seems like the storm was not quite as damaging as I expected.

My prickly pear cacti came out okay, and a couple of listeners got in touch with me and told me that they had rosemary plants that survived because they were covered. Another friend of mine told me that his rosemary died. He did not cover it, and it was really big and old, so I think it may have been on its way out anyway.

I did see some dead citrus trees around town, but also some that may just lose their leaves while the stems are okay. Same thing with olives. I saw some olive trees that were totally fine and others that were severely damaged. It’s just going to vary a lot from plant to plant, species to species, and spot to spot. We have little microclimates in our yards, and sometimes there are spots that are colder, more exposed, or warmer.

So I really recommend that you make a garden journal or take some photos or videos to capture information that will help you next year when we probably get cold like that again. It seems like it’s becoming the new normal for us to get severe cold every year, and it’s valuable to learn from those experiences and make some kind of record.

Think about what worked and what didn’t. Did you cover something and the cover didn’t work? Maybe it wasn’t big enough or thick enough. Make notes about what survived and what didn’t. I made a list of plants that are truly evergreen versus the ones I sometimes think of as evergreen, but whose tops died in this cold event because it got cold enough. Keep track of that information so you can learn from it.

Now we’re going to get into woody plants. It’s still a good time for tree and shrub planting as long as they’re native or well-adapted species. You should wait to plant Mediterranean trees like figs or tropical shrubs like bougainvillea until mid-March. Otherwise, you can plant oaks, redbuds, hollies, and similar plants at this time of year.

Do not prune your oaks right now because it’s oak wilt season. Oak wilt season kicks off in February, and with the warm weather in the forecast, pruning now can spread the disease. Try to avoid it and wait until summer for oak pruning if you can.

It’s still okay, though, to prune small ornamental trees like redbuds, hollies, crape myrtles, acacias, orchid trees, and buckeyes. Trim them to clear rooflines, keep them off walls, out of walkways, or out of the street and driveway. If you keep hitting branches with your car, it’s a good time to address that.

You can also trim those trees to shape if you want to reduce their size or remove any wild branches coming from the center. It’s a good time for that. Maybe in the next episode I’ll talk more about crape myrtle pruning.

For the rest of February, you still have time to continue pruning your roses, as I described in the last episode. If you need tips, go back and listen to that one. Try to get your rose pruning done by March 1 before they start actively growing. I’m still working on mine and will be doing it until the end of the month.

You still have plenty of time to prune fruit trees. Some orchardists actually prefer to prune apples, pears, peaches, and plums while they’re blooming. That way, they can see how many flowers are on each tree and control the fruit load by removing some of those flowers.

Remember, each flower can become a fruit, and most domestic fruit trees produce too much fruit. That fruit needs to be thinned later. Some orchardists prefer to remove flowers during pruning so they don’t have to thin as much later, though you’ll probably still need to thin if you get a good crop.

The deadline for pruning fruit trees is when they start growing leaves. Once new leaves appear, you should stop pruning. There is another opportunity for fruit tree pruning in midsummer. Some people with older trees prefer summer pruning because it slows the trees down and helps control their size.

If you miss winter pruning, you’ll get another chance in the summer. The same goes for roses. But avoid pruning when new leaves are actively growing.

In the last half of February, you can still collect fruit tree scions, also known as cuttings, and store them for rooting or grafting later. It’s also time for grapevine pruning, and you can collect grape scions as well.

The second half of February is a great time for planting most fruit and nut trees. You can plant in March, but you’re really pushing it. It’s better to get them planted by March 1. The same goes for shade and ornamental trees.

March gets challenging because trees start growing tender new leaves, and moving them around can damage that growth. If you’re planning tree planting, go ahead and try to get it done in February.

Shortly after pruning, feed your roses and fruit trees according to your soil test results. A nice layer of wood chip mulch around the root zone, out to the drip line, helps all woody plants.

Now I want to talk about deciduous shrubs. Deciduous means they lose their leaves in winter. Common examples include beautyberry, white fragrant mistflower, rose of Sharon (also known as althea), bee brush, almond verbena, and flame acanthus. These shrubs can be trimmed now if you want to change their shape or control their size.

For example, I have a customer with white mistflower close to a walkway. We like it to grow slightly into the walkway to soften the edge, but every winter we cut it down to about 18 inches to control its size.

With beautyberries, we might cut the top half off every three to five years to keep them from blocking windows. Almond verbena at my house gets huge every year, so I cut it down to about 9–12 inches every winter. These plants are very flexible, and you can trim them however you like.

There are exceptions. Avoid pruning hydrangeas, azaleas, spireas, and mock orange now because you’ll remove their flower buds. These plants form buds in the fall and bloom in early spring. If you trim them now, you’ll remove the flowers. Instead, prune them after they finish blooming.

Winter honeysuckle is another example. Mine is still blooming. As soon as it finishes, I’ll trim it, removing any wild branches and reducing the height by about one-third if needed.

It’s also a good time to trim evergreen shrubs like hollies and cherry laurels. I’ll explain more about those in the next episode.

Now for a quick message from our sponsor.

Hi y’all, this is Colleen from ATXGardens.com. If you want personalized help with your landscape, book a consultation and we’ll walk your yard together, answer your questions, and create a plan that feels doable. This week I helped some customers who built a brand-new home outside of town. They had some older post oaks and a blank slate for landscaping, and I helped them get oriented and feel confident moving forward. Check out ATXGardens.com to book an appointment.

Now let’s get back to the episode.

Now we’re going to talk about perennials and bulbs. Since we’ve had a hard freeze, it’s much easier to see that it’s time to cut back perennials. February is a good time to do it. I like to have it done before March 1, because that’s when many plants start growing again. March 1 is the average last freeze in Austin, though outside of town it can be closer to March 15.

Dead plant material can sometimes protect new growth from cold, so it depends on your risk tolerance. If you cut plants back now and we get another hard freeze, new growth could be damaged.

I mentioned the tops of bulbs getting damaged, like my Dutch irises. I was surprised—they came through better than expected and may still bloom. But more tropical bulbs like Texas spider lilies, agapanthus, crinums, and hippeastrums didn’t fare as well. Their leaves turned to mush.

Remove the dead leaves, but don’t cut into the neck of the bulb. Keep that intact, because that’s where new growth will come from later in spring.

The last half of February is a good time to cut down herbaceous evergreen plants like cast iron plants, monkey grass, sedges, Asian jasmine, and holly ferns. If they look ratty, cut them down to about an inch above the ground and they’ll grow back in March.

It’s also a good time to trim plants like salvia greggii, nita’s skullcap, pink and purple skullcaps, blackfoot daisy, and Powis Castle artemisia. Remove dead branches, horizontal growth, and old flower stems to encourage bushier growth.

If you need help with this kind of pruning, it’s exactly the sort of thing I can help with during a consultation.

Now moving on to the vegetable garden. We’re in a transition from cool-season to warm-season crops. First, assess any freeze damage and decide how to proceed. You may want to remove damaged plants and prepare beds for March planting.

Pull out old plants, add compost and fertilizer according to your soil test, and apply mulch. Leaves, shredded paper, pine needles, or chopped ornamental grass tops all work well.

If you still want cool-season crops, it’s your last chance to plant collards, kale, mustard, lettuce, carrots, turnips, radishes, and beets from seed. It’s too late for most cool-season transplants like broccoli or cauliflower, so if you have them, get them planted right away—but don’t buy more.

This is also your last chance for potato planting. Get them in the ground now.

You should also be thinning indoor seedlings of warm-season crops like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Keep just one plant per pot for proper airflow and space.

You can cut extra seedlings at the soil line, or if they’re very small, gently separate and replant them. Around March 1, start moving seedlings outside on warm days to begin hardening them off.

Hardening off is the process where plants transition from tender indoor growth to tougher outdoor growth. They become sturdier, bushier, and better able to handle weather and insects. Move them outside on mild days, then bring them back in if it gets cold. Around March 15, you can start planting them in the ground.

In the herb garden, remove anything that died in the freeze and make notes about what to replace. It’s the last chance to plant cool-season herbs from seed, like dill, calendula, fennel, parsley, and cilantro.

You can also start warm-season flowers indoors, like marigolds, cosmos, sunflowers, and zinnias, though they’re easy to sow outdoors in late March.

For lawn care, get your mower serviced and the blade sharpened for the first mowing in mid-to-late March. Watch for winter weeds. If they’re getting tall or starting to bloom, mow them—preferably with a bag to avoid spreading seeds.

I like using a Dutch hoe, the Fiskars Uproot Weeder, and a Japanese hand weeder for winter weeds. I’ll include links in the show notes.

And that wraps up today’s episode. Check the show notes for links to everything I mentioned. If you enjoyed the podcast, please share it with a fellow Central Texas gardener—it really helps the show grow. I’m Colleen Dieter with ATXGardens.com, and I’ll see you next time.

Thanks for listening to the ATXGardens Podcast. For show notes, tools, and to book a consultation, visit ATXGardens.com. Happy gardening. See you next time.