Winter work
February begins the quest for that hopeful time of year memorialized on innumerable seed packets: “when the ground can be worked.” A shovel full of rich Virginia clay faithfully amended with leaf mold and compost will crumble like cake when the moisture’s just right, but wet soil with meager organic matter renders mud more suitable for bricks. If there’s a patch out there where you grew tomatoes last summer, it needs just a bit of digging and amending on a fine winter day to be ready to receive a few handfuls of seeds the first week of March.
 This unusual mature variegated English holly graces the entrance of a home on Blenheim Avenue. At this time of year, don’t shear holly; instead, clip. |
You say you don’t have a double-dug garden bed raked smooth, high in organic matter and the best of humus? Use potting soil instead in a 12" diameter container. Scatter the seeds, sift 1/4" more of soil over them, tamp down lightly with your knuckles and soak with a fine spray.
Keep it moist in a cool room until the seeds germinate. In a week or two, after the plants are up, they will need bright light, even moisture and occasional feeding with a high nitrogen liquid fertilizer. Sea kelp is a good organic. Once the seeds have sprouted, you can put the pot outside, bringing it in overnight when temps drop below the mid-20s.
Classic French mesclun produces a variety of greens all at once: a pre-mixed packet of leaf and head lettuces, arugula, kale, chervil, radicchio and the like. Sow heavily and as the little plants begin to grow all jumbled up together, harvest the outside leaves and thinnings for the most delicate, succulent salads you will ever eat. You’ll know where they came from and how they’ve been grown.
Along with planning for edibles, February is the time to get the hollies in shape. Valentine’s Day is the traditional starting point. Wait for temps above 40 and take the hand shears and loppers to any shrubs that have gotten out of hand. Cut branch by branch, thin out the middles for air circulation and reduce for height, thinking in terms of one-third.
This is not the time to shear. Save the electric trimmers for summer when you can cut active growth and thicken up the shrubs. Many hollies—the Chinese Burfords, the blue-green Meserve hybrids like Blue Prince and Blue Princess, and the Japanese Helleris—take well to hedging or clipping, along with periodic thinning, but an attack of geometry now will leave you ugly stubs to live with until new growth starts in the spring.
Do not starve the hollies. They do not thrive on barren ground. Apply compost, leaf mold and slow-release organic fertilizers like Holly Tone each fall or in very early spring to keep a lively soil. There is nothing like sunlight glinting off a mass of glossy holly leaves to brighten a winter day. If you don’t have any, get some.
Check out piedmont-landscape.org for an annual day-long seminar, February 14 at the County Office Building on Preston Avenue. Plantspeople, master gardeners, landscapers, designers and sundry others congregate to hear the best in their fields. This year features Rick Darke on “Grasses and the Design of Mid-Atlantic Livable Landscapes.”
It’s also time to bring branches inside for forcing. Forsythia, witch hazel, honeysuckle bush (sweet-breath-of-spring), quince, pussy willow and red maples unfurl their flowers in the warmth of indoors. Mash their stems and change the water every week. It’s a treat to have them close to the eye while it’s still bare outside and they make an instructive project for children, illustrating the magic of dormancy and the intricate beauties of nature’s designs.—Cathy Clary
Garden questions? Ask Cathy Clary at garden@c-ville.com.
Raincatcher
Part of the pineapple family, the funky bromeliad hails from South America and makes an excellent indoor plant. There are a multitude of varieties, all of which share vibrant hues and waxy bowl-shaped leaves intended for catching rainwater. The larger varieties hold several gallons of water and, in the wild, support mini-ecosystems for small frogs, snails and amphibians.
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All bromeliads have fairly shallow roots so smaller pots are adequate, but the key is that they need to be well stabilized. Otherwise bromeliads are quite reasonable in their demands; no extreme temperatures, consistent moisture, good drainage, not too much soil, and no sudden movements from light to shade. Their only trick is that they reproduce consistently and rapidly, so over-fertilize (especially in winter) and you’ll have an outbreak on your hands. Each bromeliad will bloom once in its lifetime, then will create a “pup” growing out from the base. Cultivate this for a year, and it in turn will bloom.—Lily Robertson
February in the garden
-Work the ground
-Sow greens indoors in a salad bowl
-Tend the hollies