RTL Today - Green thumbs - Nicola Senior: Seasonal tips for your garden - February

Nicola is the founder of Gaarden Karisma. She has been using her passion to create beautiful landscapes in our gardens for the past ten years.

Gaarden Karisma

FEBRUARY IN THE GARDEN:

Just when you’re looking out of the window at the grey sky and lashing rain, wishing for a glimpse of the vibrant yellow of the forsythia, pink blossom of the cherry trees or white waterfall display of the spiraeas, wishing Spring would emerge, your eye falls upon a cluster of green leaves tentatively pushing through the saturated soil ... and suddenly you realise that actually there’s no time to lose, you’ve got to get out there and prepare for the new season.

The first job is to prepare the soil…

General soil maintenance

Clear up weedy beds before mulching.

Mulch with a layer of organic matter helps to condition the soil, suppress weed growth, insulate plant roots from temperature fluctuations and keep soil moisture during the summer.

Lighter soils can be mulched now, but if possible leave heavier soils until later on in the season, once the soil has warmed up. Towards the beginning of March, flowering shrubs, roses, fruit bushes, and perennial borders will need a fertilizer high in Phosphor (P) to help promote strong healthy flower buds, flowers and fruits, as they start back into growth.

Fertilising

Fertilising is essential to ensure healthy growth, a strong immune system to help fight off pests and diseases and to replace naturally occurring nutrients in an impoverished soil or which have been leached out during the rainy winter months.

Hedges, trees and lawns require a fertilizer high in Nitrogen (N) which gives the healthy green colour (chlorophyll) to their leaves.

Don’t forget to use an adapted fertilizer with a low pH on your Rhododendrons, Azaleas and Heathers.

When conditions allow, lightly dig over the soil and add in some organic matter to the upper in preparation for a new rose bed or perennial planting.
Cutting back, pruning and dividing

Cutting back, pruning and dividing

Once the risk of heavy frost has passed, ornamental grasses such as Miscanthus, Stipa, Deschampsia and any flowering perennials which have been left for their winter interest can be cut back.

Deadheading winter pansies (and other winter bedding) regularly will encourage flowering into the spring and even early summer. Remove the old leaves on your Christmas roses (Helleborus x hybridus and H. niger) to expose the flowers and remove possible foliar diseases such as hellebore leaf spot

February is a good month to divide clumps of herbaceous perennials and grasses which have outgrown their space, are flowering poorly, beginning to show “hollowed-out” centres or which you simply want to have more of…..

Prune fruit trees (apples and pears) to ensure a good cycle of fruiting wood and to prevent the crown becoming too congested. The aim is to create a light open goblet shape framework with five or six main branches.

Flowers

Sowing and planting

Lily bulbs can be planted in pots for flowers this summer. Grow them on indoors or in a cool greenhouse, then move them out onto a patio when in flower, so you can enjoy the blooms.

Dahlia tubers which have been stored over winter can be started into growth by placing them in a light, warm place to sprout before planting. They will need additional misting with a spray-bottle of water, to stop them drying out.

Gladioli corms can also be placed in a seed tray in a light, warm spot around 10ºC to encourage them to sprout before planting. This will ensure an earlier summer display.

Early spring is a good time to plant shrubs for some Spring colour and interest.

Try some of these: buttercup winter hazel (Corylopsis pauciflora), the golden rain tree (Laburnum), lilac (Syringia), the star magnolia (Magnolia stellata), a crab apple, Malus “Red Everest” or “Sentinel”, the wedding cake tree (Viburnum plic. “Mariessii”) and don’t forget the huge choice of Rhododendrons and Azaleas.

Finally do a quick check up on your pot plants to make sure they are not waterlogged or dried out if they are under a balcony. Refresh the soil and don’t let them miss out on a generous dose of nutrients.

And now you can sit back down, put your feet up and look forward to coming season.

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