Your Garden In February
Prepare your garden for spring with the help of these brilliant and easy-to-follow February gardening jobs from YouGarden.
The recent snowy weather and high winds has not been ideal for gardeners, but that shouldn’t stop 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…
February gardening jobs
1. Prepare raspberry 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 like ‘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.
2. 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 a Premium Professional Compost to give your plants the perfect growing environment.
- Continue to plant bare root fruit trees, bushes and canes as long as the soil isn’t frozen. The sooner you get them in to establish, the sooner you’ll reap the rewards!
- It’s the 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
3. 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.
4. 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
You may also like:
- 9 Ways To Deter Slugs And Snails From Your Garden
- Go on, grow your own!
- 5 Things To Do In Your Winter Garden
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.
