Top tips for gardening in February

Seed Potatoes

Our selection of Seed potatoes are available now, with our full range of over 40 different varieties. It’s best to contact our friendly staff on 01727 822255 if it’s a specific variety you require. Chitting is the process that allows strong green shoots to develop on the seed potato; this gives them the advantage of an early start and also increases the yield.

Snowdrops

February is Snowdrop month, when many snowdrop gardens are open for us to admire. Unlike most other bulbs, Snowdrops are best planted while in leaf. We have a selection of different varieties for you to choose from.

Work in some compost to enrich the soil before planting and plant a little deeper than the soil at the top of the pot. If you have large overcrowded clumps in your garden already, wait until flowering has finished and then lift carefully with a fork. The clump can then be separated out and replanted at the same depth as they were growing.

Heathers

Trim winter-flowering Heathers as they finish flowering to prevent them from becoming straggly. Gardening shears are a useful tool for this job as you should trim back the plants to the base of the flower stalk.

Pruning

Birds will soon be looking for nesting sites, so it’s best to get any large-scale pruning over with so that you can leave them undisturbed in the coming month. Deciduous hedges can be pruned back hard, but conifers are best left until the summer.

Late flowering shrubs, such as Buddleja, can be pruned in February. These shrubs flower best on growth that they will make this year. You can be really ruthless cutting them back really hard and you will be rewarded with a better show of flowers this coming season.

Bird Boxes

Birds need time to get to know any new bird boxes before they will choose them for their new home, so be sure to clean and check old boxes. If you need a new one, our large range is bound to suit the most fastidious bird!

Vegetables & Soft Fruit

Once the soil has dried out, the digging of the vegetable bed should be finished. If you grow brassicas, it’s a good idea to check the pH of your soil with a soil testing kit, as brassicas all like alkaline soil. Lime should be applied to the soil at least two months before planting.

We have a range of Raspberry canes available which should be planted when gardening in February. Always plant to the depth that they were planted at in the nursery; this can be easily seen by the darker mark on the main stem. Remember that there are different times for pruning summer and autumn fruiting Raspberries, or you may lose this year’s crop. It is only the autumn varieties that need pruning now, which should be pruned to the ground. They will fruit on canes (long stems) that grow this summer, whilst the summer fruiting varieties will fruit on the new canes that were produced last summer. They should just have the tips pruned before tying in the old canes having been pruned out after they fruited last summer.

Contact our friendly team

Browse our range of plants, tools and accessories at our garden centre in St Albans – perfect for gardening in February.

For more information, contact our friendly team on 01727 822255 or email us on info@aylettnurseries.co.uk.