February Gardening Jobs to Never Skip: Do These 5 Soon

Colorful borders in an old-fashioned cottage garden — (Image credit: Getty Images/oversnap)

Jump to category:

1. Prune Wisteria
2. Prune Fruit
3. Plant Bare-Root
4. Chit Potatoes
5. Sow Sweet Peas

Whether you think of it meteorologically or astronomically, spring begins in March. It leaves February as the last real opportunity to get certain tasks done before spring arrives and the garden explodes into action. We’re over halfway through now, and there may be vital pruning, planting, or preparatory jobs you must get done before the end of the month.

Meteorologically speaking, spring always starts on March 1, while astronomical spring comes a few weeks later (March 20th in 2026). As the temperatures warm and days grow longer, plants start to wake from their winter slumber. Some plants desperately need pruning before new growth starts, others need planting ahead of their buds breaking, and certain flowers or vegetables need sowing to be ready in time.

February has always been a prime transitional month and a busy one for a gardener. As plants start to stir, you can set yourself up for success by getting certain key tasks done now. Here are five February gardening jobs to never skip that you need to get done before the window closes. You’ll see what to trim, sow, plant in February, and more.

1. Prune Wisteria

Regular pruning keeps any wisteria looking and performing at its best. For a glorious plant, you need to prune wisteria twice a year, in summer and winter.

This keeps it compact, healthy, and flowering profusely. If you grow wisteria and haven’t done it yet, the window for winter pruning closes at the end of February.

Thankfully, the actual method for winter pruning wisteria is very simple. It just involves cutting the previous summer’s growth back to two or three buds with a pair of sharp pruning shears.

I have used a trusty pair of Felco F2 pruning shears (available at Amazon) to do this task for many years.

Getting it done before the end of the month is important. An unpruned wisteria produces fewer flowers, as trimming encourages the growth of flowering spurs.

Any flowers that do appear can end up obscured by lots of leaves and stems, and the vigorous growth habit can lead to stems getting out of control.

2. Prune Fruit

Pruning raspberries in winter with pruning shears

Winter pruning is important with fruit trees such as apples and pears. It keeps them healthy and will encourage a better crop of fruit this season. The best time to prune fruit trees (including apples, pears, quince, and figs, but NOT stone fruit trees) is in winter, during dormancy, before the new growth starts in spring.

Not pruning can lead to increased health issues, especially if you are not removing dead, damaged, or diseased wood, and over time, cause overcrowded canopies that are more susceptible to disease. Yields and the size of the fruits are also affected when pruning is skipped.

Also, when you grow raspberries, February is a prime month for pruning fall-fruiting types that fruit on new wood. This type of raspberry pruning is super-simple; just cut all the canes down to ground level. It wants to be done in late winter – I have always had these as plants to prune in February on my to-do list – before any new growth starts.

If you don’t cut them down, the new growth coming through can get swamped. A lack of air and light stunts their growth, and you’ll not get many berries to pick. The patch will look messy and crowded. It can only take a few minutes to cut them down, so get it done this weekend.

3. Plant Bare-Root

Bare-root plants are a great option for any gardener. You can get ornamental trees, fruit trees, shrubs, roses, hedging plants, and perennial plants bare-root during dormancy. They are a cheaper alternative to container-grown plants and offer a cost-effective way to boost flower beds or overall backyard ideas.

They are available during dormancy and want to be planted before the plant starts actively growing.

Once the buds start to break, it is too late. While some gardeners in colder climates can plant in early March, for most gardeners, the window to plant bare-root trees or shrubs closes at the end of this month.

Certainly, the clock is ticking to purchase bare-root plants (see a wide range of bare-root plants available at Amazon). You may be able to act fast and find bare-root roses, trees, or shrubs, but you will need to plant them straight away when you get your hands on them.

To get bare-root plants off to a good start in their new home, it can help to add compost or bone meal to the soil when planting. You can get organic bone meal at Burpee that will help to promote strong root development.

4. Chit Potatoes

Chitting potatoes isn’t essential, but I highly recommend it, and I do every year to boost my harvests. In a nutshell, it is a method of sprouting seed potatoes indoors to extend the season, and it can improve your yield and help to grow bigger potatoes.

The classic types of potatoes to chit are early potatoes, and February makes the perfect time to start them off indoors. Set them into egg boxes or seed trays, with their ‘eyes’ facing upwards, and place them somewhere bright and cool, such as a windowsill that gets lots of indirect light.

Chitting takes 4-6 weeks, and early potatoes are planted between mid-March and mid-April. First earlies ideally want to go into the ground in March, while second earlies are planted early to mid-April.

To give them enough time to chit for a good period, they want to start before the end of February. Given the right conditions and time, the shoots should be around an inch when you plant potatoes.

If you want to grow potatoes, see the range of potatoes at Burpee. If you miss the boat for earlies, maincrop potatoes are planted in April after the second earlies and don’t necessarily require chitting due to their longer growing season.

5. Sow Sweet Peas

Sweet peas are perennially popular cottage garden flowers. Whether adorning trellises in flower beds or being grown as cutting garden flowers, these nostalgic plants deserve a place in any garden to bring glorious blooms and sweet fragrance in summer.

Midsummer is the prime season for most sweet pea varieties. If you want yours to be blooming in full splendour at that time of year, you need to plant sweet peas by the end of February.

You can start growing sweet peas in the fall or late winter/early spring. As they can take three to four months from sowing the seeds to starting to bloom, seeds planted by the end of February can be expected to bloom in June.

Sowing sweet peas has always been one of my own February gardening jobs to never skip, and I make sure to have them planted before the end of the month. Realistically, you can sow into March, but the downside is later blooms and a shorter overall season of flowers to enjoy.

Another trusted tip is to pinch the tips of the plants when they reach around four inches tall. This develops a bushier plant, with more side shoots and more blooms. If you sowed sweet peas in fall or earlier in the year, add pinching out plants to your list if they have reached that size.

See the range of sweet pea seeds to sow at Amazon

See the range of sweet pea seeds to sow at Walmart

See the range of sweet pea seeds to sow at True Leaf Market

See the range of sweet pea seeds to sow at Botanical Interests

Do you fancy discovering another of those February gardening jobs to never skip? An honorable mention must go to lifting and dividing snowdrops in the green. The term ‘in the green’ basically means the plant has flowered, but the green leaves are still growing.

It is a reliable way to lift, divide, and plant snowdrops, and is best done when the blooms start to fade. This can be February for many gardeners, but it may be early March for those in colder climates whose snowdrops bloom later.

Shop Pruning Tools

Pruning Shears

These bypass pruning shears have a steel blade with a low-friction coating to make light work of cutting through stems and branches up to 5/8 inch thick.

Bypass Loppers

These lightweight bypass loppers have high-carbon steel blades and are suitable for trimming thicker branches of up to a 1-½ in diameter.

Pruning Set

This set has all the tools you need to prune trees and shrubs. It includes bypass pruners, bypass loppers, and a pruning saw.

TOPICS

Drew has worked as a writer since 2008 and was also a professional gardener for many years. As a trained horticulturist, he worked in prestigious historic gardens, including Hanbury Hall and the world-famous Hidcote Manor Garden. He also spent time as a specialist kitchen gardener at Soho Farmhouse and Netherby Hall, where he grew vegetables, fruit, herbs, and cut flowers for restaurants. Drew has written for numerous print and online publications and is an allotment holder and garden blogger. He is shortlisted for the Digital Gardening Writer of the Year at the 2025 Garden Media Guild Awards.