January
- Get those plant and seed catalogs out and start planning next season’s garden [liCut the branches off of your Christmas tree to use as mulch in the garden
- Scout tree branches and limbs for signs of egg masses
February
- Keep tabs on your houseplants. Make sure they are getting enough humidity. Check for pests.
- Cut branches of flowering shrubs like forsythia, pussy willow, quince and magnolia to bring inside for forcing
- Inspect hemlocks for overwintering woolly adelgid
March
- Prune non-stone fruit trees, grapes and raspberries. Start all-purpose spray regimen
- Start slow growing and cool season seeds like: onions, leeks, parsley, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, eggplant and peppers
- Begin removing mulch from around rose bushes
- Plant your peas on St. Patrick’s Day. (If there’s no snow stopping you.)
- Begin horticultural oil (dormant oil) applications where needed to control pests
April
- Harden off and move cool season crops to the garden
- Plant asparagus roots and onion sets
- Apply pre-emergent crabgrass killer after forsythia bloom
- Remove mulch from on top of flowers
- Re-mulch beds as necessary
- Remove tent caterpillars and webs
- Begin monitoring for signs of disease
May
- Once your last frost data has passed, warm season crops can be planted
- Start seeds for melon and squash. Hold until the end of may, to avert squash bugs and borers.
- Begin pinching annuals and perennials to make the plants fill in and produce more blooms
- Prune evergreens when the new growth starts to turn a darker shade of green
- Prune stone fruits (cherry, almond, peach, nectarine, plum) at bloom time
- Stake tall perennials
- Remove and dispose of azalea leaf gals before they turn white and release their spores
June
- Prune flowering shrubs after the flowers begin to fade
- Continue pinching flowers until July 4th
- Deadhead and remove fading leaves from spring bloomers
- Divide and transplant perennials
- Take softwood cuttings from trees and shrubs to propagate new plants
- Remove fallen fruits from below trees to prevent insect egg laying
- Place red sticky sphere traps in apple trees to control apple maggot flies
- Check undersides of rose leaves for rose slugs
- Watch for scale infestations on Euonymus and pachysandra
- Move houseplants outside
July
- Stop pinching back flowers
- Divide oriental poppies and iris
- Keep deadheading
- Remove leaves infested by miners, to control spread
- Succession plant beans, lettuce, radishes and corn
- Water newly planted trees and plants as necessary
- Start seeds of fall crops like: broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower
August
- Seed a fall crop of peas
- Gather herbs and flowers for drying
- Keep deadheading and harvesting
- Begin taking cuttings for new plants
- Sit and enjoy your garden in all its summer glory
September
- Start moving houseplants indoors. Check for pests first
- Seed a fall spinach crop
- Seed cover crops on bare spots in the vegetable garden
- Plant new trees and shrubs, to give them at least 6 weeks before frost
- Plant spring flowering bulbs
- Begin “dark treatments” with your saved Poinsettia plant
- Dry and store gladioli corms before a frost
October
- Plant garlic and shallots
- Have your soil tested and amend as needed
- Harvest Brussel sprouts after a hard frost
- Clean up garden debris. Remove all vegetable plants and fallen fruit.
- Remove dead annuals from the garden, after a frost.
- Cut back perennial foliage to discourage overwintering pests. Leave flowers with seeds for the birds.
- Start raking and composting leaves
November
- Finish amending the soil.
- Cover exposed garden soil with a layer of shredded leaves, for the winter
- Wrap screening around fruit tree trunks often damaged by mice and voles
- Keep watering until the ground temperature reaches 40 degrees F.
- Buy bulbs for winter forcing
- Mulch rose bushes
December
- If you can get to them, harvest any remaining root crops
- Start rotating your houseplants so they get equal light on all sides
- Check your stored corms and tubers for rot or dryness
- Start paperwhites and amaryllis for winter blooms
