Monthly Garden To Do’s: Cleaning: Finish cleaning your garden beds. Watering: Increase the watering to 3-4 times per month. Pruning: Finish pruning trees and summer-flowering shrubs. Roses and grape vines can be pruned late in the season. Raspberries and other fruit bramble shrubs can be pruned except for “Heritage” raspberries, those are pruned in the fall.   Compost: Empty and sift your winter compost, then set aside for placement in beds. Leave sitting for another month so as not to burn your plants, compost will still be high in nitrogen. Return incomplete composted materials back into the pile and add a high nitrogen source like chicken manure or coffee grounds. Amend the soil around your trees with compost, this acts as a natural fertilizer. Vegetables: If you planted cool season vegetables last fall you can remove the frost cover or cold frame slightly on warm sunny days. Start seeding or transplanting salad greens and cooking greens. Plant seeds of cool season growers: radishes, carrots, beets, turnips, onions, kohlrabi, parsnips and peas.    Remove: Mustards plants will start appearing in mid-February, remove them promptly. If you haven’t already put on the pre-emergent on your grass areas, I prefer corn gluton. Planting: Perennials can start to be planted now, but be sure to harden off plants outdoors for a week or two before planting.

Want to learn more great tips? Sign up for the Sage Advice newsletter to be the first to get these tips. Then jump on over to the Brown, green & more Facebook page. There’s design & photo inspiration there that I don’t share anywhere else!