Your Garden In February
Prepare your garden for spring with the help of these top tips from YouGarden – and we’ve a special offer to save 20% when you buy plants and accessories, too!
The recent snowy weather has not been ideal for gardeners, but that shouldn’t stop you making plans for your spring garden now. With a little preparation you can look forward to a spring and summer of colour and blooms! Here are some easy suggestions from the experts at YouGarden…
Prepare Rasberry Canes
Now is the perfect time for planting bare root raspberry canes in a sunny or partly shaded spot with well-drained soil. Most will take a couple of seasons to establish before they bear fruit, but primocane varieties such as ‘Polka’ or ‘Glen Ample’ will reward you with lots of large, bright red fruit this summer.
Plant against a wall, fence or support wires attached to stakes. Dig a 30cm wide by 8cm deep hole, and spread out the roots. Cover and water well. Space raspberry canes 60cm apart. Alternatively, plant several canes in a large pot and draw the tops together with twine to form a wig-wam shape.
Flowers, Trees and Shrubs Care
- Remove old flower heads from mophead and lacecap hydrangeas. Cut back to a pair of healthy buds then trim out any dead, diseased or spindly stems.
- Summer-flowering shrubs such as Spirea, Buddleia, Hydrangeas and Lavatera can be pruned throughout February and March but leave spring-flowering plants until they’ve finished blooming.
- Potted displays will benefit from a top up of fresh soil. You can empty and replace old compost or if there’s room just add some fresh compost to the top. Towards the end of the month top dress beds and borders with some fish blood and bone. Try our Premium Professional Compost to give your plants the perfect growing environment.
- Continue to plant bare root fruit trees, bushes and canes as long as soil isn’t frozen. The sooner you get them in to establish, the sooner you’ll reap the rewards!
- It’s last-chance saloon for pruning lots of established fruit plants. Apples, pears, medlars and quince, as well as autumn-fruiting raspberries should all be pruned for the final time this winter now.
Pic: Istockphoto
Plant a Kitchen Garden
Get a head start on veg. A windowsill propagator kit is a great way to get started – try sowing tomato seeds first and chilli or sweet pepper.
And Don’t Forget…
- On milder days start to prep your lawn for the spring by levering out dandelions and other weeds with long roots using a dandelion weeder tool.
- Prevent slugs and snails for chomping on the emerging shoots of perennials by thinly scattering slug pellets around individual plants.
- Rejuvenate soil compacted by winter wet. Fork over the soil, then spread some Fish Blood & Bone fertiliser to replace nutrients washed away by rain.
Pic: Istockphoto
Special Offer – 20% discount for My Weekly Readers
If you want to get ahead for spring, YouGarden have all the bulbs, flowers, plants, trees and shrubs you’ll need to transform your garden, and for the month of February 2019 you will receive a special discount of 20% off your online purchases (offer excludes machinery and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer). Click here for this special deal. The 20% discount has been applied to the prices. Check your shopping basket to see how much you’ve saved!
Allison Hay
I joined the "My Weekly" team thirteen years ago and, more recently, "The People's Friend". I love the variety of topics we cover both online and in the magazines. I manage the digital content for the brands, sharing features and information on the website, social media and in our digital newsletters.
