Gardening tips for February

Gardening tips for February

The RHS top 10 jobs for this month

1. Prepare vegetable seed beds, and sow some vegetables under cover
2. Chit potato tubers
3. Protect blossom on apricots, nectarines and peaches
4. Net fruit and vegetable crops to keep the birds off
5. Prune winter-flowering shrubs that have finished flowering
6. Divide bulbs such as snowdrops, and plant those that need planting 'in the green'
7. Prune Wisteria
8. Prune hardy evergreen hedges and renovate overgrown deciduous hedges
9. Prune conservatory climbers
10. Cut back deciduous grasses left uncut over the winter

Week 1

- Weather permitting, you can start planting shallots in a sunny spot in well prepared soil
- If you haven’t sown your sweet peas, then start thinking about it, leaving them to germinate in a greenhouse or conservatory
- Clip back conservatory climbers such as passion flowers
- If you’ve winter pansies in the garden then keep deadheading to prolong flowering
- Plant container-grown trees and shrubs to give them time to establish
- Don’t get over-enthusiastic about planting anything tender – Jack Frost will have them!
- Order bedding plugs to grow on in your greenhouse.

Week 2

- You can give the broad beans a head start by sowing the seeds in 3” pots
- Bare rooted roses can be planted in well prepared soil
- Thin out the branches of lilacs to promote stronger growth, and cut back long growths on wisteria to a couple of buds.
- Pull away dead leaves from Hellebores
- Invest in some slow release organic fertiliser such as bonemeal to top dress shrubs – it’ll give them a Spring lift!
- Tidy up clematis. If it’s a late summer flowerer then cut it back to about 3’. Repeat flowering clematis (those that flower in early AND late summer) should just be tidied up by removal of weak and dead stems. Feed them as well.

Week 3

- Place cloches over some outdoor strawberry plants for an early crop
- Tidy up winter flowering heathers
- Make a new bed for strawberries, this will keep your plants up to date. When the new plants are well rooted remove the old plants
- Clear old beds such as Brussels sprouts and Cabbages. Decide how you are going to grow your Peas or Beans and if it is to be sticks seek a suitable source of supply
- Top dress citrus trees
- Antirrhinums, begonias, lobellias, petunias and verbenas should be sown and given gentle heat
- Shrubs such as buddleja davidii need pruning back hard if they’re not going to get out of hand
- Think about starting Dahlias in gentle heat
- The weeds such as bittercress and grass will need sorting now, by hand or by chemcal if you must

Week 4

- Divide up clumps of herbs such as chives and repot – give one or two to friends!
- Those with rock gardens will need to dress them with gritty loam to make the plants feel at home and do not forget to firm the plants in for they will have been lifted by the frost.
- Pot up gloxinia tubers and leave them to sprout on a warm windowsill
- Balsam, Begonias, Canna, Celosia, Cobaea, Cyclamen, Fuchsia, Thunbergia together with bedding plants such as Golden Feather, Lobelia, Petunia and Pyrethrum can be sown
- In mild weather, give the lawn its first cut of the year — set the lawn-mower blades at their highest level. Don’t mow if the grass is wet.
- All unused ground should be tidied up and a dressing of manure or leaf mould applied.
- Give hybrid tea, floribunda and climbing roses a final spring prune. It’s not an exact science, just clip them back with the shears
- Lift and divide clumps of perennials that have got too big. Pot some up and take them to a plant swap later on in the season
- Sort the compost bin out, turning if necessary
- Finish any pruning that has been left, this is the month for Damsons, Pears, Plums and Quince, and spread manure round trees and dig it in.