4 hours Ago By Isobel Pankhurst
There are a number of gardening jobs that should be done this month to ensure your garden looks beautiful and remains healthy later in the year. While February is one of the colder months of the year, and there won't be much growing in the garden, it can still be a busy time for gardeners as they prepare for the coming growing season. Angela Slater, gardening expert at Hayes Garden World , has shared her February gardening tips that you can get started with now to ensure your garden remains healthy all year round.
Angela's first tip is to start sowing any seeds that need a long growing season, such as antirrhinums, geraniums, aubergine and chillies. She advised: "Use a good quality seed compost and a new or disinfected seed tray; sow the seed thinly then stand in a tray of water for five minutes until all the compost is wet. "Place in a heated propagator in a light position.
Water sparingly; if the compost is kept sodden the seedlings will rot." The next task to get underway this month is to start growing micro-greens in punnets on a sunny windowsill. Use the plastic trays, which contain fruit from the supermarket and good-quality seed compost, to sow these seeds, keeping them damp but not sodden; otherwise, they may rot.
February is also a great time to start cleaning and disinfecting your greenhouse, taking particular care to get between the glass and the frame and any staging, as these spots are ideal sites for pests to enter during the winter months. Angela advises doing this on a dry day, then leave the door and vents open to allow the greenhouse to dry thoroughly, and be sure to clean the glass thoroughly to enable as much light as possible to penetrate through the glass. This is also the perfect time to fork over garden borders and around any tree trunks to expose over-wintering grubs, which will allow the cold and birds to help dispose of these.
Angela adds that during February, you can also start planting summer bulbs in old plastic pots, which she suggests placing in a light frost-free greenhouse or porch. You can also start planting any bare root soft fruits this month, with Angela advising: "A large container will suffice for black, red and white currants, gooseberries and blackberries. "Make sure the drainage hole is covered with broken crocks.
Use a good quality peat-free compost and raise the pot off the ground to allow the water and any silt to drain away. Place in a sunny position." February is a great month for preparing your vegetable beds, as long as the ground isn't frozen in your area.
Start by digging over, then put fleece or polythene cloches in place to warm the soil before sowing seed in spring. Then place black polythene over the beds where you are going to plant some vegetables. This is also the time to dead-head any winter flowers that you haven't got around to yet, as this will encourage new growth as soon as the temperature begins to warm up.
Clean and disinfect pots and seed trays Check all your tools are cleaned and sharpened Plan what you are growing this year and order your seeds Chit potatoes by placing upright on an egg tray in a light frost-free position Construct any raised beds for vegetables Add lime to the veg beds if they are slightly acidic Prune woody shrubs and climbers, chop up the thin prunings and place on the compost heap Cut down deciduous grasses to within a few centimetres of ground level Move any deciduous shrubs which are in the wrong position while they are still dormant Prune out soft fruit to maintain an open structure Place a dustbin or a terracotta forcing pot over any rhubarb crowns to give you an early crop of tender fruit Continue to feed the birds, their stock of berries will now be starting to run out; feeding the birds is an ideal way to keep aphids at bay Dig out any perennial weeds which have started to grow..
