The Best Seeds to Plant in February For Your Gardening Zone
If you're itching to get a start on your spring garden but the cool weather is bringing you down, look no further. Gardening expert Madison Moulton lists everything you can start sowing in February according to your USDA Hardiness Zone.
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February can be a weird month for gardeners in all but the warmest climates. You can sense spring on the horizon, but it’s just not here yet. And for gardeners in lower USDA zones, it won’t be for a while.
Luckily, gardening continues year-round, including winter. There may not be as much activity as there is in spring, but there’s still plenty you can do now.
Depending on your USDA zone, February brings opportunities to start seeds indoors or even direct sow outdoors if your temperatures allow. Here’s what you can get started this month, no matter where you find yourself on the map.
Zone 1-3
In zones 1 to 3, winter is still in full force. You can’t do much outdoors (or at least, you probably don’t want to). That means most activity happens indoors or in heated greenhouses.
If you are itching to start your spring garden, February is a good time to set up a small seed-starting station by a sunny window or under grow lights. You will want to hold off on sowing anything outdoors until temperatures are more forgiving, but do not let that stop you from planning.
There are a few things zone 3 gardeners can plant indoors closer to the end of the month. Focus on crops that need a head start, like onions. If you have a bit of extra room, mix in some flowering favorites, such as petunias and echinacea, to keep your garden visually interesting.
If want to get harvesting immediately, try sowing a few microgreen seeds in shallow trays or sowing some indoor lettuce. Even when the temperature plunges below freezing outdoors, you can still enjoy fresh greens with the help of a heating mat and grow lights.
Zone 4
Moving up to zone 4, it is still chilly outside, but your window for indoor sowing opens a little earlier. Crops like celery, rosemary, lavender, sea holly, and verbena can all be started this month, depending on your exact frost date. You can look at our indoor sowing guide to get an idea of the right time to start.
By the end of February, you can also work in leeks and dill, giving those seedlings a chance to establish early for transplanting, around 10 weeks before your last frost date.
Most seedling trays will fit under a simple grow light setup if you don’t have great natural light yet. Indoors is also the perfect place to begin experimenting with new varieties. Try uncommon or heirloom options and get creative. Keep an eye on local last-frost predictions to stay on track for transplanting as soon as it is safe outdoors.
Zone 5-6
Zones 5 and 6 have an even wider range of seed-starting options, although it’s still too chilly for many common crops. This month may still deliver a few frosty nights, but there is enough of a break to begin sowing even more crops indoors.
Peppers are a favorite here because they take a while to germinate and grow to transplantable size. You will definitely need a heating mat, though, as they need warm soil. Bunching onions also do well when started now, added to your other onion seedlings you hopefully started a little earlier.
For flower lovers, black-eyed Susan, cape daisy, dianthus, salvia, snapdragons, and stocks can be started indoors. You can also start strawberries outside in beds or containers this month, as they take a long time to germinate and need some stratification.
Zone 7
In zone 7, February is all about herbs and early flowers. It is the perfect month to get chives, mint, marjoram, thyme, and oregano going indoors so they develop strong root systems before heading outdoors later in spring.
This is also time to start celosia, coreopsis, craspedia, delphinium, foxglove, hollyhocks, poppies, and scabiosa. The advantage of sowing indoors is complete control over moisture and temperature, making germination much more reliable.
If your local conditions have warmed enough, you might be able to sow beans outdoors around mid to late February, especially if you can shield them during any sudden cold snaps. By the end of the month, brassicas like broccoli or cabbage can also be started. Spring can be unpredictable, so keep row covers on standby just in case.
If you’re starting many seeds at the same time, make sure you label everything carefully. You don’t want to end up with trays of seedlings and no idea what they are or when to move them outdoors.
Zone 8
Zone 8 can do everything Zone 7 does, planting herbs and certain flowers like delphiniums or poppies. But you can also start tomatoes and basil indoors now so they are large and ready to move outdoors when winter is truly over.
Greens such as lettuce and collards can also get a head start, either indoors or out, depending on your climate. Check the seed packet of your specific varieties for more detailed information.
Sprinkle in a few warm-season flower seeds like zinnias, amaranth, calendula, or marigolds. Once transplanted, these will bring immediate color and pollinators, too. If you do get the occasional frost, remember to protect these tender seedlings with a cover until danger passes.
The main challenge in zone 8 is timing, as you don’t want to be too early or too late for sowing or transplanting. Be ready to up-pot plants if they outgrow their trays faster than expected, but aren’t quite ready to move outdoors.
Zone 9
In zone 9, frost should be wrapping up soon. That means this is prime time to sow a wide variety of seeds.
You can start heat-loving plants like nasturtium, sunflowers, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and squash toward the end of the month indoors. If the ground is workable, brassicas, herbs, and greens can also be sown directly outdoors (follow this guide for exact timing).
Try direct sowing flowers like lavender, sweet peas, bee balm, or phlox once the threat of frost is minimal. Depending on your exact location, you may be able to sow African daisies, coreopsis, ammi, and alyssum (about 1 to 2 weeks before the end of your frost window).
Zone 10-11
In zones 10 to 11, frost is either a distant memory or does not happen at all, which shifts the February focus primarily to direct sowing and transplanting.
Herbs like basil, oregano, or parsley can go straight into your garden, as well as tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, and pumpkins. If you have space to spare or want to replenish garden nutrients, now is also a good time to sow cover crops like clover to improve soil structure before peak growth season hits.
On the flower side, most annuals and perennials can be sown or transplanted without hesitation, including cosmos, dianthus, stocks, zinnias, sunflowers, and statice. With mild weather nearly year-round, you have the freedom to expand your plant list and experiment with new varieties.
Keep an eye on soil moisture. Warmer February days can dry out the ground faster than you expect. Because these zones remain so warm, pests can become active earlier, too. Come up with a pest control plan before you set out all your new seedlings.
