Jobs in the garden for February
Greetings from a warm and sunny Australia where we’re visiting our daughter and family in South Australia in the Barossa, famous of course for its wine – some of which I’ve had to try!
Just like an English summer, the weather in Oz can be variable. We’ve had no rain and have experienced temperatures ranging from 22°c to 45°C, which is very hot!
As always when we are away, we like to do a little travelling and last week we were in Western Australia in and around Perth where we explored Kings Park and the Botanic Gardens, which were well worth the visit.
A couple of weeks ago, I was delighted to be invited onto ABC’s Talkback Gardening, South Australia’s radio programme with host Deb Tribe and their gardening guru Sophie Thomson. Sophie is well known across Australia on radio and TV and she kindly invited us to visit her new garden, 1½ hours NE of Adelaide. It’s an amazing project and in under a year Sophie and partner George have done a great deal of work. Despite the harsh growing conditions Sophie grows a wide range of plants, including lots of fruit and vegetables grown in self-watering beds, known as wicking beds. This is something I’m interested in learning more about so I can try it back home. We might not have summers like Australia, but we definitely need to think more about saving water and using it wisely.
While visiting Sophie, we recorded a podcast about her gardening career and the development of the garden. You can find this and other gardens we visited on Pots & Trowels through February.
We’re due back home to Lincolnshire in early February, where the weather will definitely be much colder, but we are both looking forward to getting into the garden to start work on some new areas ready for spring planting. Also, after five weeks of air-conditioning, I’m looking forward to lighting the log burner!
Jobs for February
Now is the perfect time to cut back herbaceous perennials to ground level to encourage strong new growth. Crowded clumps can also be lifted, divided and re-planted.
Prune late summer flowering clematis, known as group 3, from mid-February by cutting all growth down to around 6”-10” from ground level. Feed and mulch and look forward to an amazing display from late July onwards.
Snowdrops are at their best through February and it’s a great time to get out and see them in open gardens. It’s also a good time to plant from pots to help bulk up the numbers in your own garden.
Although I don’t dig the borders, I do work through them with a fork to loosen the surface and to pick off any weeds, before spreading a few inches of mulch or garden compost to help keep the soil in good condition.
Top-dress trees, shrubs or evergreens growing in large containers by scraping off the top couple of inches of old compost, sprinkle a little slow-release fertiliser and top off with some fresh compost.
Get your mower ready for action by giving it a clean and check over so that it’s ready for the new mowing season. In fact, very often I give our lawns a light trim in late February if conditions are dry.
Hardy annuals can be sown in cell trays in a cold greenhouse to give you strong seedlings for planting out in April for a flush of early summer flowers.
Prepare seed potatoes for spring planting by standing the tubers in trays in a light, frost-free position. Very soon new green shoots will develop from the dormant eyes, which gives them a head start when they are planted out into the garden.
Prune autumn fruiting raspberries by cutting all the canes down to ground level and then apply a mulch of compost around them.
If you have a heated propagator you can start to make early sowings of tomatoes, peppers and aubergines in small pots.
As winter vegetables such as leeks and cabbages come to an end, start to clear the beds and prepare the ground by adding some organic matter, ready for spring sowing and planting.
For a weekly gardening fix you can watch or listen to our “Pots & Trowels” gardening videos and podcasts by visiting www.potsandtrowels.com or on YouTube.
Followers of Pots & Trowels can take advantage of the following discounts.
Kings seeds offer 10% discount on seeds purchased from their web site www.kingsseeds.com by quoting the code PT2026.
PlantGrow who make a range of organic mulches and compost offer 10% discount when ordering online www.plantgrow.co.uk or by calling 01953 525001 – just quote PT2026
Happy gardening