Although it’s still winter, San Diego gardens are already showing signs of spring with fresh growth and new blooms. Give your garden some love this month, and your efforts will pay you back in the weeks to come.
Plant Now
You can continue to plant colorful winter annuals and cool season vegetables this month. It’s also time to add camellias and summer blooming bulbs to your yard. Check out my February 2021 post for a list of winter bedding plants, and plant cool season vegetables along with dormant artichoke, asparagus and rhubarb.
Camellias that are blooming now are vegetatively dormant, so it’s a good time to find them in nurseries and get them in the ground. If you start summer blooming gladiolus now, they should bloom before thrips have a chance to attack. You can also plant crocosmia, lilies, crinums, spider lilies, tuberosa, glory lilies, daylilies and callas for lovely summer blooms.
Weed and Feed Your San Diego Garden
Now that we’ve had substantial rains, our winter weeds are sprouting. Pull weeds now before they set seed, and next year’s rains won’t bring as many. If you want to figure out which weeds are loving your San Diego garden and find out how to manage them, my post from February 2022 has a link to the UC Davis weed photo gallery and identification tool.
Feed citrus along with permanent plants. Citrus trees need high nitrogen fertilizers starting this month. Feed them every four to six weeks until early summer. You can also start feeding other plants like ground covers, roses, shrubs, trees and perennials this month or next.
Cut-Back and Shape Up
If you live near the coast, cut back tropical and semi-tropical plants like begonias, gingers and cannas by Lincoln’s birthday, February 12. If you live inland, wait until Washington’s birthday, February 22. This will help protect them from frost damage and set up the plants for new growth when temperatures warm.
If your Mexican sage is looking shabby and you see new, basal growth that’s six to eight inches tall, you can remove the old blooms and stems now. If new growth is showing on penstemons, verbenas, Powis Castle Artemesia, and other sages like ‘Mystic Spires’ and ‘Indigo Spires,’ they can also be trimmed back.
San Diego Gardens Tips Source
A lot of information for San Diego Gardens comes from the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County. They are a great resource for all of your gardening needs including planting, pests, vegetables, and water use. They even have a free hotline where you can get your home gardening and pest control problems answered.