To Do This Week

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Week of February 20th, 2010

• Divide and plant overgrown perennials. Some perennials you planted last spring probably don't need dividing yet; just trim those back. But for plants like gaillardia and yarrow, if if they've been in the ground two or more years, they are getting overgrown, You can dig them out and divide the root ball. And you do that by digging the entire plant out of the ground and then gently cut the root ball or pull it apart. You can actually use a knife to get those out of the ground. Once you do that, you can plant the divided portion; divide into either two or three pieces or more, depending on how large it is. Then you can put one of those pieces back into the ground where it came from and move the rest around to other parts of your garden or give them away to your friends and family. Lots of gardeners like to have pretty plants such as these. And yarrow and gaillardia do need to be divided pretty regularly.
• Prune roses and fertilize. You can also plant roses.
• Cut back hardy perennials and those with woody growth. Leave more tender plants alone until March.
• Prune evergreens and shape them.
• Prune and shape rosemary.
• Prune trees; last call for oaks susceptible to oak wilt.
• Plant trees, evergreen shrubs, and hardy perennials.
• If you get tomatoes or peppers soon, pot them up so you can bring them to warm safety in case of freeze. By the time it's warm enough to set them outside, they'll be big enough to take root quickly.
• Fertilize vegetable crops and winter annuals.
• Dig weeds or mow them down before they set seed. Apply corn gluten to control summer weed seeds underground. For weeds that are up, the best thing to do is dig and mow.

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