February 2023 Now is a great time to find a place in your landscape to sit and just look around. If you took notes of what worked and what didn’t work in the past, review those while sitting in your landscape. Take this time to daydream. Look at your landscape and visualize what you want to improve, enlarge, reduce, or just change. You may want to incorporate a color scheme or theme. Also, if you don’t have a sitting area, I highly recommend including one. It can be mobile or fixed, the goal is to give you a place to enjoy your landscape. A mobile seat will give you the opportunity to enjoy your landscape from different vantage points. You still have time to plant woody plants and cool- season vegetables. We are at the point where you can plant Irish potatoes and sugar snaps (sweet peas). With sweet peas, you will need a trellis or netting for them to climb on. The middle of this month is the time to start pruning most of our woody plants. Start by pruning out the damaged material, then start thinning cuts. In some instances, you may need to do a renewal prune, cutting plants back close to the ground and retraining the new growth to replace the dead material. As of January 30th, the chill hours are: Brewton, AL – 542 hours Old Model; 388 hours Modified Model Fairhope, AL – 391 hours Old Model; 294 hours Modified Model Moss Point, MS – 465 hours Old Model; 368 hours Modified Model February is the month to apply pre-emergent herbicides for warm-season weeds. Make sure the product you select is labeled for the type of turfgrass you have. Also, avoid “Weed & Feed” type products as it is too early to fertilize. Enjoy the outdoors! January 2023 Happy New Year! December dealt us some brutal weather that took a toll on many plants in the landscape. Don’t be too hasty to prune your woody plants that were injured or do your routine pruning. Pruning now can promote growth that may be killed back by cold temperatures yet to come. Also, removing too much plant material can reduce the cold tolerance to the remaining material. Routine pruning for most of our woody plants, both ornamental and fruits, should be done mid-February. As of Dec. 31st, our local chill hour number are: Pascagoula: Old Model - 326 Modified Model - 240 Fairhope: Old Model - 277 Modified Model - 180 Brewton: Old Model - 368 Modified Model – 214 I tend to rely on the Modified Model because it negates any chill hours just prior to a warming trends Oct -Dec. It also takes into account that hours when the temperatures fall below 32 degrees F, they don’t help. With that being said, though the numbers seem a bit low, we are on track to accumulate adequate chill hours. A grafting/budding reminder. Now is the time to collect bud wood, also called scion wood from any plant you plan to use in grafting/budding. Keep the collected wood in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. Wrap in moist paper towels and place in a zip top bag. You can use moist sawdust in the place of moist paper towels. If your vegetables took a hard hit from the freeze a few weeks ago, you can replant them or prepare for the next crop. You can still plant Cole crops (turnips, collards, lettuce, etc.). Late Jan thru February, you can plant sugar snaps and white potatoes. If you sent in a soil sample and received the results, you should apply the lime now as recommended. If you haven’t had a soil test done, I highly recommend getting it done this month and getting the lime down. Here’s to a prosperous gardening New Year! Enjoy the outdoors!