Gardening tips for February

[Gardenman]

Christmas & the New year are over, so it’s time to get out there & prepare your garden for another year of form beauty colours & connecting with nature. If you are lucky enough to have a garden , let’s get you enjoying it this season 

 

So let’s get started with 

1. pruning 

Hedges. The best time to plant new hedges & prune evergreen ones before the birds want to nest in them. Prune them hard for the season to come . There are some different choices for a hedge in the nursery now. We just planted a pretty Pittosporum hedge in Dulwich village to replace a box that was suffering from Box moth . For those of you suffering with Box moth there are now plenty of alternatives for you to choose from . 
For deciduous hedges you can refurbish them with a light pruning & cleaning out of leaves & rubbish 
Remember to give them a good feed of manure when you’ve finished

Last chance to prune Apple & Pear trees. With all fruit trees you need to let the air flow through them taking crossed over branches out & cutting deadwood out remembering to paint over the cuts with a tree paint 

One of two months you can prune Wisteria is February in order to give you flowers . So prune back to the third /fifth bud from the main branch & cut all dead branches & then give a potassium feed 

Prune Evergreen Jasmine & Bougainvillea lightly

Cut back Raspberry canes to 6 inches from the ground 

Cut back ornamental grasses before new shoots appear, cut off damaged & diseased leaves from Christmas roses Hellebores & give them a tidy up to give you their long lasting colours 

And lastly prune your Roses . Give bush Roses a good prune back to a bud each time giving the bush a good rounded shape 

With climbing Roses cut the very long branches back to a bud & trim them to suit what they are climbing 

With Floribunda Roses dead head & trim. Give them all a good feed of manure digging it into the roots . 
You can attach the longer branches of climbing Roses to a cane dome & the will give you more flowers 

2. Planting 

Plant up in baskets & borders plenty of Cyclamen for colour feeding them & deadheading regularly for more flowers 

Plant up Roses & please choose ones with lovely scents . There are too many new ones with no scent !! Again plant up with a good measure of manure & heal in well leaving no holes & gaps around the roots

Still a good time to plant all shrubs trees & climbers 

As said earlier it’s the best time to plant up hedging . There are some lovely evergreen hedges you can buy . As said there are many new replacements for Box hedging . Or you can plant a deciduous hedge like a Beech .Best to ask your nursery which one to choose 

3. Lawns . Mostly leave alone but give them a good raking & clear all debris off them . You can cut their edges to clean them up , but don’t cut yet 

4. Tidy weeds from borders , add plants to gaps & lay a good mulch of compost which will keep the plants warm & give them a good feed into Spring. When finished flowering you can divide Snowdrops for free plants next year 

That’s it for now & as usual if you can’t do this yourselves ask one of the recommended gardeners on this forum or even myself 

 

Happy Gardening 

Nigel 

07759862191