February Jobs For the Garden
It’s still a bit cold and miserable, and in the UK this is the month we are most likely to get snow. But the season does throw the odd sunny winter’s day where the sun is quite warm and you can get out to potter around the garden. So here are my February jobs for the garden to help you get started.
Hunt for those bulbs you planted in Autumn, they should be pushing up all over the place (containers, borders, in your lawn). Clear leaves and other debris from on top of them so they can reach the light and start to flower in the near future. You’ll realise how close the garden is to bursting in to colour!
Keep an eye on the weather, specifically the cold weather! Protect plants (specifically those with buds on) from any frost or snow that’s due. If the frost is only overnight and guaranteed to thaw during the day there is no need to worry, but if the forecast looks like temperatures won’t reach much over zero during the day – and therefore the frost is prolonged – then definitely tuck those plants in so they survive.
Start planting seeds! We’re possibly all waiting for the greenlight for this. If you are starting things off inside on windowsills you can get cracking, but you’ve got a bit more waiting to do if you are going to plant from seed straight outside. Tomatoes and a few other vegetables from seed are good for Feb planting, so start filling up those sunny windowsills and keeping checking for those first shoots.
Plant potatoes! If you’ve gone for ‘earlies’ or even ‘maincrops’ they will need chitting right about now. Chit from early February on your sunniest windowsill for at least two weeks. You’ll see them start to grow sprouts. Once they’ve chitted for a while then you can even plant out – although I’d recommend only doing this in potato bags or containers so they stay a little extra protected in any bad weather. For more tips on growing potatoes read this.
Plan ahead. If you haven’t already thought through your garden plans or decided what vegetables you want to plant then now is the time. You can buy your seeds, bulbs and seed potatoes etc. from garden centres now. You can also order online – I like to use Dobies for vegetable seeds, The Rose Press Garden for flower seeds, Bulbsat42 for bulbs, and this year I’ll be getting herbs from Urban Herbs. Each seed packet should tell you exactly when to plant them so you can add them to your calendar so you’ve got a reminder of when you need to get digging.
Top up those veg beds and planters. Before you get seeds and plants in you can spend this month looking after the soil. Turn the soil over with a garden fork, remove any roots from last year’s growth and top it up with a mix of all-purpose compost and soil (depending on what you plan to grow next).
Replace any tired and broken containers. Check any wooden troughs aren’t rotten or split that could cause an injury when you are planting later in the year. Check Facebook marketplace or gardening groups to see if anyone is giving any away or making them locally and you could really bag a bargain
Weeding, doing a little bit this month (preferably on a sunny winter day) can help keep this task manageable coming the spring and summer.
Fertilise your shrubs. Now is a great time to use slow-release fertiliser on roses or other flowering shrubs in the garden. The on and off rain we have at this time of year mean this is a minimum effort job that will pay dividends.
Pruning, but not everything. It’s important you don’t prune things now that could succumb to frosts and leave you flowerless. However there are plenty of things that can be pruned now:
Late summer flowering clematis - give them a hard chop back to 30cm from the base
Winter blooming shrubs like winter jasmine, providing they have finished flowering they can be trimmed back now
Wisteria should be cut back to ensure you get full bloom in spring
Buddleja can also be pruned right back to the base so they don’t take over in the coming year – they can grow so fast!
Ivy or other climbers if they are on the verge of outgrowing their space, you can have them looking neat and tidy with a trim now.
What will you be getting stuck into this month in the garden?
