Garden Tasks for Early Spring (February - March)

Spring officially beings March 20th; however we have had a very mild winter here in TN.  Just the other day it was 65°F.  I have several bulbs beginning to surface.  Anyhow, here's a look at tasks to be done in early spring.

Preparations

• Start weeding.
• Prepare soil for planting by forking it over and digging in organic matter.

Sowing Seeds

• Sow seeds of half-hardy and tender bedding plants indoors in a frost-free place.

Planting

• Plant summer-flowering bulbs, hardy perennials, and ornamental grasses.
• Plant bare-rooted shrubs and garden trees.

Pruning

• Prune bush roses.
• Prune deciduous  shrubs and climbers that flower later in the summer, such as buddleja, jasmine, lavateras, and certain varieties of clematis.  
• Prune hardy evergreen shrubs and trees.

Other Tasks

• Lift and divide oversized clumps of perennials; discard dead or unproductive sections in the middle of the clump.
• Prepare soil for planting in fair weather.
• Rake the lawn, if needed.
• Repot or top-dress shrubs, climbers, and alpines growing in pots and containers.

This list was found in Learn to Garden: A Practical Introduction to Gardening.  I did modify the list a little.   

Pineapple 1st attempt

I tried growing a pineapple from its top.  I followed directions from this site. I only let mine dry out 2 days.  After a week or so in water it began to smell really bad and had white mold growing on its leaves.  I think it may need to dry out longer.  It was definitely rotting.  


Here are pictures from my pineapple attempt.  

This is the top after I twisted it from the pineapple.

This is after I removed leaves around the roots.

I removed more leaves and got rid of the fruit flesh to help prevent rot.

Strawberry Sprout Pictures

I'm up to 17 strawberry sprouts.  Here are some pictures:

This is a close-up of my first sprout.  It's still small but has 1 true leaf on it.

Strawberry Sprouts

As of today, Jan. 5th, I have 4 sprouts.  All of them are from the extracted seeds.  The strawberries I planted whole have not produced a sprout yet.   My camera is not good enough to get a picture of them yet because they are so tiny.  Each sprout starts with 2 very round leaves.  All of mine currently only have 2 leaves.  I'm excited to see how many more pop up within the next week :)