Gardening Tasks by Month for Hardiness Zones 5b-6a

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Gardening Tasks by Month for Hardiness Zones 5b-6a

Each USDA planting zone has its own seed sowing program. If you are new to the vegetable garden, here is a gardening checklist by Month for Hardiness Zones 5b-6a that the everyday gardener from zone 5 to zone 6 can do. Of course, the time of outdoor tasks depends on.

JANUARY

Check out garden catalogs and stores for seeds. Start seeds indoors for summer flowers.
Prune fruit trees and late flowering deciduous shrubs. Snip back lateral and side branches of wisteria to within two or three buds.
Knock heavy snowfall from bushes, hedges, and evergreens to prevent damage.
Keep bulbs in containers, lightly watered to maintain proper development.
Spray deciduous trees and shrubs with dormant oil and lime sulphur.
Check that dahlia tubers are not drying out and keep an eye on overwintered fuchsias and pelargoniums for whitefly and signs or rot.

FEBRUARY

Prune deciduous trees (maples, birch, and walnut), before sap rises, but not spring-flowering shrubs.
Prune clematis and buddleja (if you haven’t already) that blooms after June.
Sow hardy annuals (bachelor buttons, sweet peas, California poppies) where they are to bloom. Start tender and half-hardy annuals indoors.
Plant lily bulbs.
Clean and sharpen tools. Tune-up your lawn mower so it is ready for spring.
Spray roses, fruit trees, and some shrubs with dormant oil on a mild day.
Lime lawns to counteract acidity and achieve a desirable pH balance.

MARCH

Sow radish, spinach, fennel, parsley, cauliflower, cabbage, potatoes, broccoli, and carrots.
Plant bare-root roses. You’ll find a good selection at your garden center.
When forsythia blooms, do final pruning of hybrid tea and floribunda roses.
Excellent time to plant new trees and shrubs.
Divide large clumps of perennials.
Eliminate weeds and hunt for slugs, two chores that will pay major dividends, later
Aerate lawns to revitalize grass. Overseed bare spots. Eliminate moss by liming, improving drainage, and creating more light.

APRIL

Prune early blooming shrubs such as Ribes sanguineum and forsythia, after blooming.
Continue the process of dividing and planting perennials.
Get dahlia tubers started indoors in milk cartons or pots.
Deadhead grape hyacinths, tulips, and daffodils. Feed bulbs after flowering with 6-8-6 fertilizer.
Sow hardy vegetables such as beets, peas, celery, lettuce, swiss chard, cauliflower, cucumbers, cabbage, and onions.
Clip and tidy up winter-flowering heathers, as they finish blooming.
Plant up hanging baskets, but keep in a protected environment until next month.

MAY

Plant out dahlia tubers with a stake to support the mature plant.
Put out hanging baskets. Water daily and feed with half-strength 20-20-20 twice a week.
Plant summer color bedding plants after mid-month.Transplant seedlings started indoors after the risk of frost has passed.
Empty spring-bulb containers and refill with summer color plants.
Move out tender exotics (brugmansia, fuchsias, tibouchina) from greenhouse.
Clean up rhododendrons and azaleas after flowering.
Plant out tomatoes, brussels sprouts, bush beans, pole beans, pumpkin, squash, and corn.
Mulch to suppress weeds, reduce evaporation and maintain soil moisture.

JUNE

Plant out zucchini and cucumber.
Sow seeds for sunflowers and other tender annuals.
Deadhead roses, annuals, and perennials to promote more blooms.
Practise deep watering. Water lawns and flower beds to get moisture deep into the soil, then don’t water again for a week.
Sow heat-loving vegetables such a melon, peppers, and eggplant.
Remove excess fruit on peach and apple trees.

JULY

Continue to deadhead roses, annuals, and perennials to get maximum blooms.
Start to harvest raspberries and strawberries.
Water hanging baskets and patio container plants at least once a day.
Pinch prune chrysanthemums to promote bushiness.
Prune wisteria (now two months after flowering) by cutting side shoots back to five or six buds, about six inches from main branch.
Collect seed from foxgloves for sowing in pots and seed trays. The new plants can be transplanted where you want them to bloom.
Cut bouquets of flowers to bring indoors.

AUGUST

Shallow-rooted rhodos and azaleas are especially vulnerable this month to drought. Don’t allow them to go thirsty.
Hill potatoes with soil or mulch.
Cut back raspberry canes that produced fruit. Leave younger canes which will be slightly green. They will bear next year’s fruit.
Check out ornamental grasses. See them at their peak this month.
Take pelargonium cuttings. They will easily root in four-inch pots.
Plant fall rye.
Sow lettuce and radish for fall use. Sow cabbage, broccoli, spinach, and brussels sprouts for winter and spring use.
Keep an eye on newly planted trees and shrubs. They need to be watered regularly during the first year.

SEPTEMBER

Begin planting spring-flowering bulbs.
Divide perennials and buy new ones. You’ll find excellent buys at garden centers this month.
Plant garlic and shallots.
Apply aluminum suphate to the base of hydrangeas if you want bright blue blooms in spring. Add dolomite lime if you want them pink.
Good time to plant new peonies.
New evergreens and perennials planted this month will have time to develop new roots before winter.
Fertize lawns with a low nitrogen, high phosphorus, potash content. Look for 1-3-2 ratio on the bag.

OCTOBER

Dig up dahlias. cannas and gladioli bulbs for storage.
Wrap bananna trees and move tender tropical plants (fuchia, tibouchina, brugmansia) indoors.
Empty flower beds of annuals once they have been exposed to frost.
Load up the garden with a variety of spring-flowering bulbs. Don’t overlook the value of naturalizing and perennializing bulbs.
Harvest the last of the tender vegetable (zucchini, squash) before frost. Brussels sprouts, carrots, cabbage and turnips can be left until later.
Fill containers with triple-decker planting of bulbs to create sequence of blooms in spring. Store out of the rain.
Apply Tanglefoot to trees to deter winter moth.
Clean and sharpen tools for next season and store them in a dry location.

NOVEMBER

Prune back summer-flowering clematis and pull away dead mass of stems. Don’t prune clematis that flower on old wood. Do this after they have bloomed.
Prune hedges.
In cooler areas, mound the bases of roses and less hardy plants with peat moss or other mulch.
Deadhead roses for the last time and prune lightly for winter.
Apply dolomite lime to lawns.
Start amaryllis bulbs indoors. Early varieties will bloom in time for Christmas.
Rake up dead leaves. Use disease-free ones around shrubs as a natural mulch. Shred others with your lawnmower and add to the compost.
Sow green manure crops of fall rye, winter wheat or crimson clover in empty spaces.
Plant new trees or shrubs, or move existing trees and shrubs to a new location.

DECEMBER