02/17/2026
Patience is key this time of year. It's a great time to make plans, even plant some new plants. But leave the leaves, dead stems and give nature a little more time to wake up for exisiting landscape. You will be rewarded with greater biodiversity this year! And more butterflies if you have a butterfly garden. It may feel like spring but we have a few weeks to go.
Every February, a warm spell tricks people into "spring cleaning" their gardens. 55°F feels like summer after weeks of cold. You grab the rake, the clippers, the leaf blower.
And you destroy thousands of lives that are 3 weeks away from waking up.
WHAT'S HIDING IN YOUR "MESSY" YARD RIGHT NOW:
🐝 NATIVE BEE QUEENS are hibernating in hollow plant stems you're about to cut. 70% of native bees nest in the ground or in dead stems. Cut them now and you eliminate an entire pollination workforce before it starts.
🦋 CHRYSALISES are attached to dead plant stalks, fence posts, and under bark flaps. They look like dried leaves or small bumps. When you snap dead stems and toss them in the yard waste bin, the butterflies go with them.
🐸 TOADS are buried 2-4 inches in loose garden soil. They won't emerge until soil temperature hits 50°F consistently. One pass with a rototiller in February kills every toad in the bed.
🐛 BENEFICIAL INSECT EGGS are laid on the undersides of dead leaves, in bark crevices, and on dried flower stems. Lacewings, hoverflies, parasitic wasps — the insects that eat your aphids — are overwintering as eggs in the mess.
THE RULE: DO NOT CUT, RAKE, OR CLEAN GARDEN BEDS UNTIL NIGHTTIME TEMPERATURES STAY ABOVE 50°F FOR A FULL WEEK.
In most of the USA, that's late April to mid-May. Not February. Not March.
That warm day this week is a trap. Your garden isn't ready. The insects, amphibians, and pollinators inside it are still sleeping.
Let them sleep.
