What to do during February in your garden and greenhouse.
Your monthly gardening checklists
Flowers
- Cut down deciduous ornamental grasses left standing over winter, before fresh shoots appear
- Divide large clumps of snowdrops and winter aconites after flowering and replant to start new colonies
- Prune late-summer flowering clematis, cutting stems back to healthy buds about 30cm from the base
- Divide congested clumps of herbaceous perennials and grasses to make vigorous new plants for free
- Transplant deciduous shrubs growing in the wrong place, while they are dormant
- Pot up containers with hardy spring bedding, such as primroses, wallflowers and forget-me-nots
- Prune winter-blooming shrubs such as mahonia, winter jasmine and heathers, once they've finished flowering
- Cut back wisteria side shoots to three buds from the base, to encourage abundant flowers in spring
- Prune buddleja and elder to the base to keep these vigorous shrubs to a reasonable size
- Trim back ivy, Virginia creeper and other climbers if they have outgrown their space, before birds start nesting
- Cut away all the old foliage from epimediums with shears, before the spring flowers start to develop
- Sprinkle slow-release fertiliser around the base of roses and other flowering shrubs
Fruit and veg
- Finish winter-pruning fruit trees and soft fruits, including apples, autumn raspberries and blackcurrants
- Chit first-early potato tubers, such as 'Foremost', by standing them in trays in a light, frost-free place
- Prepare veg beds for sowing by weeding thoroughly, then cover with a thick layer of garden compost
- Feed fruit trees and bushes by sprinkling sulphate of potash fertiliser around the base to encourage fruiting
- Sow mustard and cress in a small seed tray on a warm windowsill for pickings in just a few weeks
- Put cloches or fleece over strawberry plants to start them into growth and encourage an early crop
- Hunt out overwintering snails huddled in empty pots and hidden corners, to reduce populations. Find out more about how to deter slugs and snails from your garden
- Plant rhubarb into enriched soil, or lift and divide established clumps
- Check if old seed packets are worth keeping by sowing a few seeds on damp kitchen paper, to see if they germinate
- Start planning for your seed sowing year
- Protect the blossom of outdoor peaches, nectarines and apricots with fleece, if frost is forecast
- Plant bare-root fruit bushes, trees and canes, as long as the ground isn't frozen
- Inspect Mediterranean herbs for metallic green rosemary beetles if they start to look nibbled and tatty
Greenhouse
- Sow sweet peas in deep pots and keep them frost-free in a greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill
- Pot on and pinch out autumn-sown sweet peas to encourage side shoots to form
- Sow summer bedding and tender annuals, including cosmos, lobelia, dahlias, nasturtiums and snapdragons
- Sow tender crops such as tomatoes and chillies in a heated propagator or on a warm sunny windowsill
- Plant dahlia tubers in trays to encourage shoots to develop, which you can then use as cuttings
- Monitor greenhouse temperatures with a max-min thermometer to ensure heaters are working efficiently
- Start planting summer bulbs in pots indoors, including liatris, begonias, gloxinias, lilies, eucomis and agapanthus
- Cut off hippeastrum (amaryllis) flowerheads once they fade, but leave the stalk to die down naturally
- Hand-pollinate the blossom of peaches and nectarines in the greenhouse using a soft paintbrush
- Cut back overwintered fuchsias and increase the frequency of watering to spur them into growth
- Remove any faded or yellowing leaves from overwintering plants to prevent fungal diseases
- Wash greenhouse glazing inside and out to let in as much light as possible
House plants
- Reduce watering for almost all house plants apart from Christmas cactus and poinsettia which will need watering whenever soil feels dry
- Maximise the amount of light your house plants receive in darker months by moving to brighter spots, or choose house plants that will grow in shadier spots
- Some house plants, like snake plants, are particularly prone to collecting dust on their leaves. So be sure to give these a wipe regularly
- Try and keep house plants away from temperature fluctuations caused by draughts or central heating
- Check your house plants for pests like aphids, scale insect, thrips and mealybugs
Garden maintenance
- Install a nest box with a camera, so you can watch birds raising their broods in spring
- If snow falls, knock it off evergreen shrubs, hedges and conifers to prevent branches snapping under the weight
- Buy or make a cold frame to use when hardening off young plants in spring
- Check fleece or other insulation is still in place around pots and borderline-tender plants
- Firm back down any plants that have been lifted by frost or loosened by wind-rock
- Make fat ball feeders and hang them among roses to attract blue tits, which will also forage for overwintering pests
- Improve the soil by spreading garden compost or well-rotted manure over beds and forking it
- Spread a layer of well-rotted manure around roses and shrubs
- Sort out and clean up canes, plant supports and cloches, ready for use in spring
- Prune hybrid tea and floribunda roses, before growth restarts
- Clear away old plant debris from pond margins and scoop out any leaves that have fallen into the water
- Remove pond netting installed in autumn to catch falling leaves
- Clean and service mowers and garden power tools, so they're in good order for spring
- Coppice hazel, cutting to the base, to encourage a flush of new stems that you can use for plant supports in a few years
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