To success in gardening, it’s important to know YOUR garden’s USDA planting zone.
Every region has micro-climates, so they have different zones, for example:
Medford, Oregon is USDA Zone 8a, 10°F to 15°F
Ashland, Oregon is USDA Zone 7b, 5°F to 10°F
You can check your area with this interactive map, click on your city and the zone pops up.
http://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-oregon-usda-plant-zone-hardiness-map.php
Always check USDA Zone on plants at the nursery, before you buy.
In Ashland, Oregon the last frost date is approximately May 15th.
Sow seeds in your greenhouse, or indoors, for transplanting after May 15th.
Basil, Cabbage, Peppers, Summer Squash, Winter Squash, Pumpkin, Tomato, etc.
Flowers; Sunflowers, Cosmos, Marigolds , Zinnia, etc.
If the soil is not too wet, you can sow the following vegetables seeds directly into the garden. Once seedlings emerge protect them from spring frost. Lettuces, Cauliflower, Spinach, Chinese Cabbage, Broccoli, Peas, Chard, Carrots, Turnips, Parsnips, Leeks, Kohlrabi, Beets, Radishes.
You can plant onion sets up until 4/15. And, you can still plant raspberries and strawberries plants.
Fertile flowerbeds, shrubs, trees and grass.
Start baiting for slugs, snails and earwigs.
Watch out for spittle bugs and aphids on your existing strawberry plants.
Watch out for aphids on all plants in the landscape.
Pruning shrubs & trees should be completed by now!
After an exuberant display of flowers during spring and summer, the fall and winter mo
nths leave gardeners longing for sunnier days. A way to help overcome the winter blues is to plant winter interest in your garden. Most gardeners know about adding texture, berries, branch color and bark, to a garden, but often flower seed heads are overlooked as a winter interest.
Leaving seed heads standing in your garden provides shelter and food for birds and insects in your yard, but seed heads also provide visual interest. There is a quiet beauty when frost lies upon a seed head displaying its delicate wispy patterns. Even those spider webs covering the seed heads put on a display like tiny garlands, then add frost… and those threads sparkle like crystals in a breeze. So while you’re combing through the garden catalogs during February, look for perennials and annuals which produce interesting longstanding seed heads and distinctive structures.
A few to consider….
Anethum graveolens– Dill – Zone 2-11
Aster cordifolius– Blue wood aster (many other species) – Zone 3-8
Coreopsis grandiflora – Tickseed -Zone 4-9
Celosia cristata – Cockscomb – Zone 3-11
Echinacea purpurea– Coneflowers – Zone 3-9
Eupatorium maculatum – Joe Pye Weed – Zone 4-9
Foeniculum vulgare – Fennel- Zone 4-9
Phlomis russeliana- Jerusalem sage- Zone 5-9
Pot Marigolds – tall – Zone 3-10
Monarda – Bee balms – Zone 4-9
Muhlenbergia capillaries- Pink Muhly Grass – Zone 6-9
Ornamental grasses (all varieties & zones)
Rudbeckia hirta– Black-Eyed Susans – Zone 3-7
Sanguisorba- Burnets – Zone 3-8
Solidago – Goldenrod – Zone 5-9
Zinnia elegans – Zone 3-10
February: Preparing to plant in the Rogue Valley
Soil: too wet
Grab a handful of your soil, if you can form it into a ball, the soil is too wet for planting and chances are the seeds will rot in the ground. Plant only when the soil crumbles and falls apart after you squeeze it.
Soil pH: Use a pH soil test kit to test your soil. Kits are available at most garden centers. If you soil is too alkaline, above ph7, then incorporate lime into your soil. Lime is best added in the fall, but you can still do this in early spring. Apply Lime early in February, then a week later add in fertilizer. Both materials should be incorporated into the soil 6 to 8 inches. Wait at least a week after applying fertilizer before planting seeds.
More about modifying soil pH here…
http://www.sunset.com/garden/garden-basics/acid-alkaline-soil-modifying-ph
You can direct sow the following seeds in your garden mid-to-late February, if the soil is no too wet and temperatures are staying above 20 degrees!
Peas, non-enation resistant varieties
Early varieties radish
Spring Spinach
Fave beans
Mustard
Spanish Onions (the most common onion is the USA),
Sow the seeds listed below, indoors or in a greenhouse in February for transplanting into the garden in 6-8 weeks:
Lettuce
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Bok Choy
Pac Choi
Mustard
Cabbage
Kale
Leeks
