Freighter View Farms | Chris Izworski

February in Michigan is the month that tests gardening commitment. The seed catalogs arrived in January, the lists have been made, the order has been placed, and now the seeds are on the table and the window shows ice and gray sky and Saginaw Bay locked under a surface that will not change for weeks. The last frost is still three months away. And yet — the work begins.

February is not too early. For a few specific crops, February is exactly right.

What to Start Now

Onions and leeks are February’s main job. They need 10 to 12 weeks indoors before transplanting, which means starting in the first or second week of February to hit a mid-May transplant date. I start them in shallow trays under the grow lights — the seeds are tiny and the seedlings, when they come up, look exactly like grass. This makes them easy to overlook and easy to let dry out. Do not let them dry out. The little grass-like seedlings are doing important work underground, and in six weeks they will look like something recognizable.

Celery: if you grow celery from seed (it is slower and more demanding than buying transplants, but the flavor of home-grown celery is a different order of magnitude), February is the time. Celery needs 10 to 12 weeks indoors, germinates in cool soil (60 to 65°F, not the warm temperature most other seeds want), and requires consistent moisture. It is a high-effort crop. The flavor justifies the effort.

Peppers, if you have not started them yet, should go in no later than the last week of February for a 10-week indoor window. Late February pepper starts are already slightly late — early February is better — but they will still outperform a March start significantly. Shishitos especially benefit from the full ten weeks: bigger, more developed plants mean earlier fruit set outdoors.

What February Is For, Besides Seeds

The seed order, if it has not been placed. The popular heirloom varieties from small seed companies sell out early, and by February some of them are already gone. I order in January but I know gardeners who wait until February and still get what they want — and I know gardeners who waited until March and found the Cherokee Purple they wanted had been sold out since mid-January. Order now.

The garden plan. I draw mine on paper — a rough sketch of the beds, with each section marked for what goes in it and when. It is not a binding document. The garden changes the plan the moment the season starts. But the act of planning forces decisions: which bed gets the tomatoes this year (I rotate them to reduce disease pressure), where the cucumbers go on the trellis, how many squares of lettuce I actually need versus how many I want to plant. February is long enough to think these things through properly.

What February Is Not For

Tomatoes, unless you want a problem. Starting tomatoes in February produces plants that are ready for the garden in April, six weeks before the garden is ready for them. By the time May comes, those plants are root-bound and pot-stressed and they will perform worse than tomatoes started in mid-March. I know this. I still feel the urge to start them in February. I resist it.

The discipline of the timing is part of what Zone 6a gardening teaches. You cannot will the season to come faster. You can only prepare well for the season you have. February is when that preparation begins — under the lights, with coffee, while the bay waits outside for a thaw that is still weeks away.

It is enough to start. The rest comes.

For the complete calendar from February through October, the Zone 6a planting calendar has every crop in order.

Related reading:

• The full seed starting timing calendar — February through April: When to Start Seeds Indoors in Michigan.
• What comes next: What to Plant in March in Michigan.