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What has felt like the longest month of the year is now over and we’re into the shortest month of the year! Despite having fewer days, take this time to complete our comprehensive list of gardening tasks to set your garden or other outdoor space up for the rest of the year.
February is a real turning point when it comes to your garden and growing. The cold weather is still here but there are signs of Spring all around. Following our steps will ensure your outdoor space is in the best condition possible once spring is sprung!
This month’s jobs have been separated into four sections, helping you break up your work or skip anything that may not be relevant to your space:
Keeping your garden tidy can seem like a never-ending battle certainly throughout winter months, but all the effort you put into maintaining your outdoor space will come to fruition soon, keep going!
Not all of these tasks will be applicable to everyone’s garden, but they are generally applicable to most UK gardens. It is recommended that you carry out as many of the tasks as you possibly can before continuing with the rest of February’s gardening jobs. All of your hard work now will be more than worth it in the long run!
With nesting season almost upon us, install a camera into your nest box so you can watch birds raising their broods in spring.
Review your existing plants and if they have been loosened by wind-rock or even lifted up by frost, these should be firmed back down.
Hybrid tea and floribunda roses are due to restart growing soon. They should be pruned before the growth restarts.
Cutting to the base of Coppice hazel will encourage a flush of new stems which you can use for plant supports in a few years.
Be sure to review any fleece or other insulation to ensure it is still in place around pots and borderline-tender plants.
Clean up and sort out plant supports, canes, and cloches to ensure they are ready for use in spring.
Coldframes are a fantastic addition to your garden when hardening-off young plants in spring.
Spread compost or well-rotted manure over soil beds and fork to help improve your soil.
Well-rotted manure should be spread around all of your roses and shrubs.
Pond netting which is installed in Autumn to catch falling leaves should now be removed.
Check over and remove all plant debris from your pond water and pond margins.
If not done in January, clean and possibly service your lawnmower and other garden power tools.
If there is any snowfall, keep an eye on your evergreen shrubs, hedges and conifers. Any snow that collects on their branches needs to be knocked off to prevent snapping under weight.
Attract blue tits with the use of fat ball feeders which you can make yourself and hang among roses. Blue tits will also forage for overwintering pests.
Keeping you and your growing sheltered from the cold and wet weather of February, your greenhouse can provide a unique opportunity to grow certain plants, flowers and foods which would most likely not be possible without one!
With the cold weather still due to linger around for a little while longer, now is the perfect time to get your greenhouse clean and in the best condition possible. The correct maintenance will ensure your greenhouse is ready for another year of growing which will really kick into gear over the next few months.
Into trays begin planting dahlia tubers which will encourage shoots to develop. These can then be used as cuttings.
Cleaning your greenhouse glazing, both inside and out will, in turn, allow as much light in as possible.
Review all of your overwintering plants and if you find any yellowing or faded leaves, remove them to prevent fungal diseases.
In a frost-free greenhouse or a sunny windowsill, you should now stand deep pots that contain sown sweet peas.
Transplant your autumn-sown sweet peas to a larger pot and pinch out to encourage side shoots to form.
Using a soft paintbrush, the blossom of nectarines and peaches should be hand-pollinated in the greenhouse.
Installing a max/min thermometer in your greenhouse will allow you to monitor your heaters and ensure they are working correctly.
Summer bulbs such as gloxinias, begonias, liatris, lilies, agapanthus and eucomis should now start being planted in pots indoors.
In February, your overwintered fuchsias should be cut back and the watering frequency increased to encourage their growth.
Hippeastrum (amaryllis) flowerheads should be cut off and watering reduced once they begin to fade. But leave the stalk to die down naturally as the bulb is absorbing and storing nutrients.
February is the time to begin sowing tender crops such as chillies and tomatoes. They should be kept on a warm sunny windowsill or in a heated propagator.
Now is also the time to begin summer sowing bedding and tender annuals. These include snapdragons, lobelia, dahlias, cosmos and nasturtiums.
When asked to think of a garden, plants and flowers are almost certainly the first things that pop into your mind. This shows just how important they are in creating a complete garden. Carefully planning and taking on preparation work now will ensure your garden blossoms into a beautiful floral space come spring and summer.
February is the time to complete all of your trimming, pruning and transplanting tasks before plants begin to grow and flower. This month’s tasks may feature fewer actual planting jobs, but they are a necessary part of your gardens process if you wish to achieve a stunning bloom later on in the year.
Around February is when you can begin taking hardwood cuttings from deciduous shrubs. These include willow, forsythia and viburnum.
Deciduous ornamental grasses which were left standing over winter should now be cut down before fresh shoots appear.
To encourage abundant flowers in the spring, wisteria side shoots should be cut back to three buds from the base.
If you find your ivy, Virginia creeper or other climbers have outgrown their space, trim them back. Do this before birds start nesting.
After flowering, winter heathers should be trimmed. Remove shoot tips but do not cut back into the old wood.
Later-summer flowering clematis need pruning. Cut back their stems to healthy buds around 30cm from the base.
Any dormant plants not currently in the optimum position should now be moved to a more suitable location.
Before spring flowers begin to develop, begin cutting away all the old foliage from epimediums with shears.
Look carefully over all of your perennials. If you find any collapsed or soggy stems they need to be removed and composted.
Winter-blooming shrubs such as heathers, winter-jasmine and mahonia can be pruned once they have finished flowering.
Keep your vigorous shrubs such as buddleja and elder to a reasonable size by pruning them back to the base.
Around the base of flowering shrubs including roses, sprinkle slow-release fertiliser.
Any deciduous shrubs growing in the incorrect space should be transplanted whilst they are dormant.
Hardy spring beddings such as forget-me-nots, primroses and wallflowers can now be potted up.
Congested clumps of herbaceous perennials and grasses need to be divided. This will make vigorous new plants for free.
After they have flowered, divide large groups of winter aconites and snowdrops and replant them to start new colonies.
We’re almost there, spring is on the horizon! February is a great month for preparing your growing spaces whilst carefully looking after anything that has been growing over the past few months.
Although the cold weather is still here for now, you can begin sowing and planting a handful of seeds as long as the conditions are correct. This collection of tasks includes potatoes, strawberries, rhubarb, cress and so much more. Get stuck in now for some rich rewards later on in the year.
February is the time to finish winter-pruning all of your fruit trees and soft fruits. This includes apples, pears, blackcurrants and autumn raspberries.
Vegetable beds should now be prepared for sowing. Weed the area thoroughly before covering with a thick layer of garden compost.
Carefully review all of your Mediterranean herbs for metallic green rosemary beetles if they begin looking tatty and nibbled.
Chit first-early potato tubers. Stand these trays in a light and frost-free place.
See if your old seed packets are worth keeping by sowing a few on a piece of damp kitchen paper to find out if they germinate.
Keep an eye on the weather forecasts, if frost is predicted, cover any outdoor peaches, apricots and nectarines to protect their blossom.
Start your strawberry plant growth and encourage an early crop by covering them with cloches or a fleece.
Sprinkle sulphate of potash fertiliser around the base of fruit trees and bushes to encourage fruiting.
For a few weeks, sow mustard and cress in a small seed tray on a warm windowsill.
Look in empty pots and hidden corners for overwintering snails to help reduce the population.
Lift and divide established clumps of rhubarb or plant new rhubarb into enriched soil.
As long as the ground is not frozen, plant your bare-root fruit bushes, trees and canes.
