February Garden To-Do List
- Jenna Taylor
- Feb 12
- 5 min read
Here in Knoxville, we are in Zone 7a. Our last average frost date is usually mid-April (although in the past we have gotten some frosty days as late as Mother's Day!). That means on February 5th we are about 10 weeks out from our last average frost date. Now is a good time to organize your seeds, plan what you're planting and clean up the garden.
The Garden Plan
Know your space
How much space you have, sunlight and drainage
Map it out -- what are you planting where?
This can be the most inspiring and the most difficult part of the winter months. Seed catalogs are rushing in and it begins a seed buying frenzy where you want to grow ALL. THE. THINGS. In my experience, I like to grow some tried and true plants and give myself 1-2 new-to-me plants to try for the season. That way I still am able to enjoy growing something new and see if it's going to stay but I'm also not trying to grow all the things too.
Know your space
Whether you're planning on growing vegetables, flowers or a mix of the two, it's important to know your space. What do I mean by that? I mean to know how much space you have (square footage can be helpful) but more importantly knowing how much sunlight your space gets throughout the growing season (which can change drastically in the spring, summer and fall) and how well the soil drains. I live in the suburbs so the amount of sunlight between houses and fences varies throughout the season and in certain parts of my yard water tends to sit in one corner of the yard compared to the slight hill we have on the opposite end of the garden. I want to make sure whatever I plant in the boggy end doesn't mind having "wet feet" or soil that doesn't drain well. This is also important to consider if you're planting in the hard clay soil vs a raised bed (if you've worked with clay soil, you know how hard it can be!)
Map it out
I like to map out my garden on grid paper and write down where I want to plant things based on sunlight, soil drainage and plant height. If you have a long growing season like I do, you may also consider "What can I plant in it's place in the summer or fall?" I tend to continually plant throughout the season so when my cool annuals (like tulips, ranunculus and snapdragons) are done, what can I easily and quickly plant in it's place for the summer?
Organize Your Seeds
Know your last average frost date
Organize your seed packets
Now that you've decided what you want to plant and where it's going to go, we need to know when to start the seeds and when to plant them.
Know your last average frost date
We know in Knoxville our last average frost date is mid-April. We'll say April 20th to give us a date to work with. Now we need to look at our seed packets and see when they recommend starting seeds. Let's look at one together.
Zinnias are a perfect gateway flower for starting from seeds. They are easy to grow, pollinators love them and they can be started indoors or direct sown into the garden after your last average frost. Looking at the back of the seed packet, it shows some very important information:
If it's an annual or perennial
How deep to sow the seeds
When and how to sow the seeds
How far apart to plant the seeds or seedlings
How much sun is required for plant growth
This seed packet shows you can start indoors in seed trays 4 weeks before last frost. For us here in Knoxville, that means these seeds can be started March 23rd.
Organize your seed packets
Now that we know what information to look for on our seed packets, I like to group mine by start date (when to start the seeds).
8-10 weeks
6-8 weeks
4-6 weeks
2-4 weeks
There are so many containers out there to organize seed packets. This is tackle box to organize my seeds.
Consider planting successions
Succession planting means to split up or space out planting the same crop multiple times throughout the growing season. A good example of this are single cut sunflowers like the Pro Cut varieties. I don't know about you, but summer screams sunflowers and unless you want to have them all come the same week and then be gone for the season, succession planting is something to consider. Single cut sunnies are just that: you cut them and there is no regrowing new blooms from that one plant (unlike cut-and-come flowers like zinnias). This means if I want these sunflowers throughout the month of July and August instead of just one week, I need to start seeds every 2-3 weeks to have continuous growth and blooms.
Another way to look at this would be: Do I want 100 sunflowers all in one week? Or do I want 20 flowers each week for 5 weeks?
The good news is, there's no right or wrong way to do this! If you're gardening for yourself and the enjoyment of flowers, there's no need to worry about successions. If you're wanting to grow cut flowers to share, sell or for a specific event (maybe your wedding or a baby shower), then successions may be something worth trying.
You can absolutely plant successions of cut-and-come again flowers too--sometimes sh!t happens and the bunnies eat all your seedlings or birds steal your seeds or plants just die and get tired over the season. You can always start seeds indoors and when you transplant your seedlings, direct sow some seeds too so you have a couple successions going at once!
Clean up the garden
If you have perennials like I do and they are dead and gone, clean up for me looks like cutting back the dead stuff to make room for the new growth. You can consider amending your garden beds now or wait until before you're ready to plant in a couple months. We'll talk more about that next month!
February is about dreaming and getting your seed starting ready. Don't let it overwhelm you! Do you have questions? Pop them below and I'll do my best to answer them! I've attached a calendar for you to download and use to write what seeds you can start each week. Stay tuned for March's gardening check list!
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