Wisconsin Yard and Garden Tips is updated monthly by Milwaukee County UW-Extension. Applicability in northern Wisconsin counties may be delayed one to two weeks in spring, and advanced a like period in fall.

By Sharon Morrisey, Consumer Horticulture Agent, Milwaukee County UW-Extension

The excitement is building up to Ground Hog’s Day on February 2nd. This time-honored tradition takes place exactly halfway between the winter solstice on December 21st and the vernal equinox on March 20th a period of 12 weeks. Astronomically, it is 6 weeks until spring whether or not the ground hog sees his shadow. Meteorologically, it is usually more like 10 weeks until spring in southeastern Wisconsin. It is even longer the farther north you go.

The other time-honored holiday in February is Valentine’s Day. At least this one involves flowers so gardeners can do something with flowers. See the entry for the third week of the month to learn how to care for fresh cut flowers to help them last as long as possible.

As you start planning your gardening for this year, you might want to consult the UW-Extension gardening publications on a wide variety of subjects which are available for printing or ordering from the UW-Extension publications website at http://learningstore.extension.wisc.edu/

If you are interested in specific topics, use the search feature on the UW-Extension Horticulture website at http://hort.extension.wisc.edu/.

For more go to — http://www.wisconline.com/almanac/gardening/