February.

The seeds start now

• Set up the indoor seed-starting station

  Lights lowered to two inches above the flats, heat mat under, timer set to 14 hours. This should be running before you sow, not after.

• Sanitize last year's pots and trays

  A 10% bleach dip prevents damping-off — the fungal disease that wipes out seedlings overnight. Ten minutes, gloves, done.

• Consider building a cold frame

  A simple straw-bale cold frame gets lettuce and spinach three weeks earlier in spring and three weeks later in fall. If you've never had one, February is when to build it.

Pruning while it's still dormant

• Prune apple and pear trees

  Dormant pruning shapes the tree for the year. Take no more than 25–30% at a time. Cut for structure — open center or central leader — not for tidiness.

• Prune cherry and plum trees

  Stone fruits get pruned earlier than peaches because they're more resistant to open-wound disease. Do them mid-February.

• Spray dormant oil on fruit trees

  One application smothers overwintering scale, mites, and aphid eggs. Do it on a day above 40°F with no rain in the forecast for 24 hours.

• Mow or prune the raspberry patch

  For summer-bearers, cut fruited canes to the ground and leave new ones. For everbearers, mow the whole patch to 4 inches — you get one big fall crop instead of two smaller ones.

• Prune peaches at the very end of the month

  Peaches wait because they're the most disease-prone. Once hard freezes are past, take up to 40% of last year's growth.

Indoor housekeeping

• Give tools a thorough cleaning and sharpening

  Repeat what you didn't finish in January. Wire brush, mineral-oil rag on the metal, sanded and linseed-oiled handles.

• Fertilize houseplants as days lengthen

  The plants know the sun is coming back. Half-strength liquid fertilizer every other week from mid-February through October, then stop.