We're listing the highlights of February's to-do lists here. For even more detail, get one of the few remaining copies of my 2011 Texas Gardening Calendar. Click for details.

Plant:  Transplant established trees and shrubs before new buds begin to form for spring.  Complete new fruit, berry, grape and pecan plantings if you are using bare-rooted stock.  Sow or set out cool-season vegetables – timing will vary widely depending on where you are in the state, but the sequence will remain the same.  Onions, English peas and asparagus should all be planted 6 to 8 weeks before the average last killing freeze date.  Two weeks after that you should plant broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale and Irish potatoes.  Two weeks after that you should plant the remainder of your leafy and root vegetables such as carrots, beets, radishes, lettuce and spinach.  Warm-season vegetables are planted at or after the last killing freeze date.  Cool-season annuals to plant in February include petunias, pinks, snapdragons, larkspur, nasturtiums, stocks, ornamental kale and other cole crops, English daisies, Iceland poppies and sweet alyssum.  Divide and replant summer- and fall-flowering perennials.

Prune:  Complete all dormant-season pruning of shade and fruit trees early in February.  Grapes are pruned by as much as 80 percent each winter.  Never "top" any tree at any time for any reason. That most certainly includes crape myrtles, even though you'll see uninformed gardeners ruining their plants' form by this act of butchery.  Broadleafed evergreens such as hollies and boxwood are trimmed now by removing as much as 25 percent as you  reshape them. Cone-bearing evergreens are even less tolerant of trimming so keep it to a minimum.  Bush roses are pruned by half.  Make each cut just above a bud that faces away from the center of the plant.

Fertilize:  Asparagus with nitrogen plant food to promote strong spear growth.  Apply liquid, water-soluble plant food each time that you water annual color plants in beds or containers.  Apply root-stimulator monthly to newly transplanted trees, shrubs.

On the Lookout:  Apply dormant (horticultural) oil to hollies, camellias, euonymus, fruit and shade trees and other plants that are prone to scale insect invasion.  Broadleafed weeds such as dandelions, clover and others can be eliminated with a weedkiller spray containing 2,4-d.  Read and follow label directions carefully for best results.  Aphids may congregate on new late-winter growth.  Most general-purpose insecticides will control them.  Apply pre-emergent weedkiller granules in South Texas late in February to prevent germination of crabgrass and grassburs.  Repeat application 90 days later.