GARDEN JOBS FOR FEBRUARY

by Woodthorpe Plant Shop

Can you feel it?

Spring is just around the corner, so now is the perfect time to get out in the garden and crack on with the jobs that will prepare your garden for an incredible year.

Here's a list of the jobs we are getting on with this month.

In your beds, borders, and pots

  • Cut back all your deciduous ornamental grasses. These are the grasses that turned a golden-brown colour in autumn and have provided you with beautiful structure through winter. Don't worry about being too careful, grab a pair of sheers and cut them back as close to the ground as possible. Within a few weeks you will see the new green shoots popping up. Cutting back now means you won’t damage the new shoots.
  • Prune any winter flowering shrubs like Mahonia and heathers when they have finished flowering. Pruning them now means they have the rest of the year to form flowers for next winter. Prune later in the year and you risk pruning out the flowering wood.
  • Prune your buddleia now if you want to keep it small and compact. Cut the flowering shoots back to a new bud as close the ground as possible. 
  • Feed your soil by applying fertiliser like blood, fish, and bone and/or applying a mulch of compost. There is no need to dig anything in. Apply fertiliser before rain so it drains into the soil and leave mixing your mulch to the worms. The less you tamper with your soil the healthier it will be. The healthier your soil the happier your plants.
  • Divide any large clumps of snowdrops and winter aconites after they have finished flowering but are still in leaf. Dig them up, split them with a fork or spade and replant the smaller groups immediately.

In your veg patch 

  • Chit your seed potatoes. This just means letting light get to the seed potatoes so they can start to shoot, giving them a head start when you plant them later next month.
  • Prepare your veg beds by removing any weeds and giving them nourishing and reviving mulch of compost.
  • Protect your leafy crops from hungry birds. Pigeons are particularly greedy!
  • Sow salad leaves in a greenhouse or on a windowsill
  • Sow tomatoes, aubergines, and chillies indoors. These guys need a long growing season so it's good to get an early start.
  • Plant new fruit bushes and trees. Avoid planting during very cold spells.

Maintenance

  • Tidy your shed. Nothing gets you off to a better start for the year then having an organised shed! If you have anything you don't need any more but is still useable put to one side and bring it to our Swap and Share on 27th and 28th April.
  • Clean out and put up bird boxes ahead of the nesting season. Encouraging birds into your garden helps to manage garden pests like caterpillars without resorting to chemicals.

 

HAPPY GARDENING

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