It is toilsome to think about what need doing in the garden in February when the garden feels like it is off limits because of the previous winter weather . As I compose , after 6 straightforward days of gravid rain , nose candy is now whirl around a stark and soppy February garden , whipped by a bitter easterly wind .
It seems scarcely possible that this is the same patch of land that a few months ago gave us richripe tomatoes , aromaticbasil , and sparkling border full ofsumptuous dahlias .
And yet , although February can certainly be the bitter of the winter calendar month , it carries with it the first hints of Leslie Townes Hope for the coming gardening year .
Time to get your vegetable beds ready for sowing
Here in Scotland , for example , the twenty-four hours are perceptibly longer , buds of hydrangeasare swelling and the medulla are lead off to show – we are seeing Snowdrops ( Galanthus ) , Grape Hyacinths ( Muscari ) and the firstdaffodils leavesedging their way of life through the soil .
So , it is worth getting outside for some February gardening if you could , because now is the time to lead off the preparation and planning for how you want your garden to do this year . It is also the clock time to fetch up off your winter horticulture jobs , so that you are free to satisfy the requirement of other spring .
So if youarethinking about what needs doing in the garden in February . Here are some of the things you may do . These ideas are based around UK temperatures . The UK is broadly equivalent toUS hardiness zones 8 and 9 . So if you hold up in a different geographical zone , you’re able to adapt your provision by doing things a a few weeks in the first place or later , calculate on where you are .
Time to get your vegetable beds ready for sowing
The vegetable garden
Sow seeds now
If you are like me , you ’ll be champing at the number to get sowing , but in lot of showcase , come begin too early on is not the right affair to do . Without the right condition , seedlings can can grow feeble because of the cold and get leggy because of the short solar day .
However , if you have somewhere warm and sunny – a heated nursery or strong windowsill – you may start some veg seeds indoors now .
Chilis , aubergine ( testis works ) and peppers ( capsicums ) are good options , because they need some lovingness to get them started commence and a recollective grow season . you’re able to also starttomatoesnow , indoors or in a heated glasshouse , but in my experience tomatoes sown too early do n’t really thrive . However , that may be due to my exceptional conditions , so you might still need to try it .
Other things you may sow under cover now include , peas , brussell sprout , leeks , onions , and spinach .
you may even seed broad beans outdoors if the ground is n’t frozen or waterlogged .
Start chitting potatoes
Chitting potato means encouraging your seed spud to start up grow shoots from the eyes that come out on the surface of the potatoes . The white potato will do this naturally , but you may help them create impregnable shoots by giving them the correct conditions .
To do this , set the semen potatoes out in a container or , even well , some bollock loge , ideally with space between the white potato . Check which oddment of the Irish potato has more eyes and place that end topmost . Place them in a light position , somewhere coolheaded but protect from frost . give them to chit for 6 weeks or so before planting out .
Prepare your vegetable beds
Weather and wetness permitting , now is the time to start preparing your bed for sowing for the growing season .
decipherable any widow’s weeds , dig in some well rot manure , some home made compost or other well composted constitutional matter and rake out any stone or clump .
If you have been growing a gullible manure over wintertime , now is the time time todig it into your soil . Make certain you chop up the stem and shoot of the plant as you do so and allow a few weeks for the works material to break down before raking and sow seeds .
Warm the soil with cloches
Once you havecleared the weeds , use cloche with clear plastic , drinking glass or polythene covers to begin to warm up the soil for seed early salad and root vegetable seeds . Allow 3 or 4 weeks for the soil to warm up up and then supplant the cloches once you have sown the cum . This can make a warm microclimate to give the seedling a pass start .
February vegetable planting
Now is also a honorable time time to start off onion plant set or Allium cepa aggregatum sets . These are mini bulbs that will mature over outpouring , ready for harvest in mid to late summer .
Plant them with the tips showing , 15 cm ( 6 in ) aside , with 30 atomic number 96 ( 1 foot ) between rows .
It is a in effect theme to report them with horticultural fleece until the roots grow down and anchor the Seth in the stain . This prevents them being pulled up by hiss or other wight .
Most advice is to plant garlic cloves in autumn , but if you have lowering , smashed soil , it can better to waitress until February . Planting at this time , means they should still have time to grow well by summertime .
Rake some grit into heavy soil and then break up the heads of ail into individual cloves . Plant these individually 15 cm ( 6 inch ) aside about 5 to 7 cm ( 1 column inch to 1.25 inch ) below the aerofoil . Plant them pointy end upward . Water them in and keep them water during dry periods .
Fruit trees and fruit bushes
Plant bare root trees, fruit canes or fruit bushes
Now is the final chance you have before outflow to found bare root deciduous fruit trees / bushes . One of the pleasure of February gardening for me is planting fruit trees and bushes , knowing that it wo n’t be long before they ruin bud and begin togrow towards being a fertile plant .
Bare root industrial plant are cheaper than container grown flora and demonstrate better in most cases . They are dug from the fields during their winter dormancy and cater to you , usually with the roots wrapped in clingfilm or bubble wrap , quick for found out .
If , as take place to me with hiss cane recently , it is too wet to institute in their final planting position , find a suitable sheltered spot and ‘ heel ’ them in on a temporary ground . This means digging a slit deep and dropping the plants in side by side . Refill gently and water in so there are no air pockets . When you ’re ready you may dig them up and replant where you want them .
The ornamental garden
Perennial plants and grasses
It is clock time now , as we near former bound , to cut back the last of theperennialsandgrasses . It is right to leave somestructure in your garden over wintertime , but now is the clip to start cutting back the dead stem so as to make way for the new shoots to come .
The clipping make honest browned material to edulcorate your compost and , while you are turn around the fundament of the plant , you may clearweedsand add a near layer of mulch .
Deciduous trees and shrubs
As with yield trees , February is also the last probability you will have to play in and engraft bare rootage trees and shrubs . Container get plants can be planted later , but the sleazy bare tooth root plant will before long stop being uncommitted .
Now is also a safe time to rationalise deciduous shrubs , likeHydrangea , Cotinus and Roses .
Take out any discredited or diseased wood and , in older plant , prune out around one third of stems from the centre of the works to lease in more light . you’re able to then shorten the remaining stems by about a third to a one-half . Make certain you cut off back to just above a bud .
Time to get your vegetable beds ready for sowing
However , only follow this technique for bush that bloom on new season ’s growth . Early flowering shrub , like Forsythia or Chaenomeles ( ornamental unfolding quince ) flower on last season ’s increase , so should not be rationalize until after flowering .
Sow seeds
you may start to sowseeds of hardy annualsnow , like sweet peas . They can be sow direct in the garden seam ifthe soilis not glacial or you may go them off indoors with some warmth . If , where you live , there is still a fair bit of wintertime cold to come , then the latter choice might be better .
If you have a greenhouse , sunroom or indoor garden , there is nothing to stop you sowing plenty ofannual and perennialseeds now .
Plant up left over bulbs
Lack of clock time , or maybe indolence , think of that this year I had quite a few allium andtulip bulbshanging a round in the nursery that I had n’t got around to planting in November or December .
The ground has been so wet lately that there has n’t been an opportunity to found these out in any pillowcase , even if I ’d had the time or leaning . So , last weekend I implant them up into pliant pot , with the mind that once they are pretty well in advance – and the winter wet has subsided – I can plant them out .
Now , apparently this is n’t standard procedure , but there is no reason why these bulbs should n’t flower . They may bloom a minuscule late and they may be a bit small than they might have been , but this has saved them from going to waste . If the bulbs are pip at the top , that is n’t an issue . In fact , it is unspoiled grounds that the bulbs are still feasible .
Bare root fruit trees
Maintenance and other jobs around the garden
Seeds
Sort your cum out now .
I get laid it ’s very tempting to hang on to the seed packets that you ’ve had kick back a rhythm for a couple of years . But there is a intellect that the theGlobal Seed Vaultis , according to Wikepedia , situated “ deeply inside a plenty on a distant island in the Svalbard archipelago , halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole . ” To remain viable , seeds have to be stored cautiously .
So , sting the heater and give out your erstwhile packets of seed now . This way you avoid the frustration of sowing seeds that flush it to bourgeon and you do n’t lose precious clock time in give birth to re - inseminate later with fresh seeds .
Prune deciduous shrubs in February
Wildlife feeders
Clean up Bronx cheer boxwood and top upwildlifefeeders now as well .
We own a cat who lurch our garden like the Lion King and , I ’m sorry to say , he does hunt for birds and mice . So , without getting into all the argument about whether African tea should be kept indoors ( or even proceed at all ) , I should make it clear that we do n’t have any hoot corner or animal feeders because we do n’t want to give the cat any free collision .
However , if you do n’t have a marauder swage your garden eco system , now is a good prison term to top up your feeders , make your hoot boxes ready for new occupants and , iftemperaturesare abject , discontinue the ice-skating rink on pond or urine containers so the bird can get a potable .
Keep feeding the birds, like this Great Tit in the cold February weather
Pots and seed trays
It is also a good idea to finally do the caper you ’ve been meaning to do since October , like cleaning up pots , tray andplant labels quick for enjoyment in the Spring . The conventional advice here is to ensure that all of these are sportsmanlike before the new originate time of year to prevent the bed cover of any diseases or pests harboured in the left - oversoil or compost . I sure as shooting indorse this advice but , to be good , it ’s not something I always do .
Maybe one day , when I have more prison term on my hands , I ’ll be the stark nurseryman , who keeps everything unclouded , sizeable and ready and for use . For now , I seem to get away with re - using dirty pots from time to prison term , so I ’m not going to beat myself up about my slackness in this arena – and neither should you .
Final thoughts
Interestingly , in the daytime or two between lead off and cease this piece we ’ve had uninterrupted hard rainwater and it does n’t front like sack any time presently . So , it will probably be a while before I get down to most of these Job myself , which only work to turn up what all gardeners screw – our well laid plans are always at the mercy of nature .
Martin Cole has been an zealous plant lover and gardener for more than 20 years and loves to talk and compose about horticulture . In 2006 he was a finalist in the BBC Gardener of the Year rival . He is a member of the National dahlia Society .
He previously go in London and Sydney , Australia , where he read a diploma course in Horticultural studies and is now based in North Berwick in Scotland . He base GardeningStepbyStep.com in 2012 . The website is aimed at everybody who get it on plant or has been bite by the gardening bug and wants to sleep together more .
garden pace by Step has beencited by Thompson and Morgan , the UK ’s prominent mail edict flora retail merchant , as a website that publishes adept gardening content .
