Northwest Gardens: Vegetable Gardening in February

One of the great things about living in the Pacific Northwest is that you can have a vegetable garden in your backyard year round. Because our winter's are more wet than snow or ice - there's no need to shut the garden down during the winter months.

However, that doesn't mean you can head out to your vegetable garden in February and plant the tomatos and strawberries - but it does mean you can use the soil to sow some herbs and vegetables that will be ready in late spring and early summer.

Most of the plants that you can sow in late February are pretty hardy. They can usually withstand temperatures and frost down to 25 degrees Farenheit without being too heavily damaged.

You'll want to sow these vegetables in relatively shallow soil so that they can use the warmth of the day to germinate. Generally the top 2 inches of the soil gets warm enough for germination when the sun hits it during the day.

Pea Family

One of the more popular backyard garden vegetables that can be planted in late February - peas and beans produce a nice crop in late spring and early summer.

Snow Peas and Shelling Peas of varieties: Oregon Giant, Oregon Sugar Pod, Dwarf Grey Sugar, Oregon Trail, Olympia, Early Sweet, and Golden Sweet.

Also in the pea family you can plant Fava Beans of varieties: Broad Windsor, Green Windsor, Mr. Barton's, Random Lilac, and The Sutton.

Onion Family

February is also a great time to get some onions and garlic in the ground.

Garlic Cloves: California Early, Polish White, and Italian Red.

Potato Onions and Green Onions work well in the early vegetable garden as well.

Mustard Family

Arugula and Radishes (Fluo, Easter Egg, and French Breakfast varieties) are also hardy enough to plant in your garden in February.

Vegetable gardening in the Pacific Northwest can be a really rewarding experience because you'll be able to have fresh vegetables being produced year round with just a little bit of planning in your garden.