garden jobs for february

February has arrived – we can now start sowing a variety of seeds, and there’s still time to plan and prepare for the growing season ahead! This page contains plenty of garden related jobs you can be doing in February to set you up for a productive growing season ahead.

Planning & Preparation

February is a great time to think about how you would like your gardening year to unfold, and if you’ve already got some plans then now is also a good time to review them and make any necessary adjustments.

 

It’s a good idea to do a rough sketch of the layout of your growing space, and decide which crops you want to grow where, and how much space/which beds you intend to dedicate to each. Think also about interplanting and succession cropping (see Glossary for an explanation of what these are) as you go through the year, and try to maximise your growing area.

 

If you don’t yet have a growing space, now is still a good time to create one. You can create new fruit and vegetable beds at any time of year, but if you can have your area ready to plant in by March, then it maximises your opportunity to make the most of the growing season (in the UK at least!).

 

The natural next step from designing and creating growing spaces, and decided what the contents will be, is to ensure you’ve got all the seeds you want to be able to sow, or plug plants if you don’t have a suitable space for raising your own plants from seed. Now is a good time to place your seed/seedling orders if you haven’t already done so. Order as early as you can to give yourself the best chance of getting all the varieties you want.

 

If you want to grow fruit then you can often purchase young fruit trees and bushes bare root between November and April in the UK. Bare root trees and bushes are cheaper than their pot grown equivalents, there is usually a broader choice of varieties, and they can often be planted up until the end of March (whilst they are dormant) so that they’re ready to grow away in spring when conditions are right for growth. Again, order as soon as you can to reduce the risk of disappointment, and if you can no longer find the varieties that you want, you could look for a pot grown version, seek an alternative similar variety, or wait until later in the year (late summer/early autumn) to place an order ready for next year’s bare root season.

 

Similarly, are there any perennial vegetables you would like to grow, such as asparagus which can be bought as crowns and planted out until the end of March.

 

Is there anything else you know that you will need throughout the growing season? Do you have any horticultural fleece for protecting young seedlings when planting out in March, for example? Now is a good time to order any tools that you will need.

 

Compost – do you need to purchase any compost to either add to existing beds (the no dig approach is to simply spread it on top; there’s no need to dig it in) or to create new ones? The sooner you order any required compost the better as it allows it some time to mature before use, particularly if you are planning to have a loose or bulk load delivered.

Sowing/Planting

If you haven’t done so already, then now is a good time to plant garlic, and the same goes for Jerusalem Artichoke tubers.


From mid February you could also sow (undercover in seed or module trays):

    • Broad Beans
    • Field Beans
    • Spring/Salad Onions
    • Onions
    • Early Brassicas, such as:
      • Spring Cabbages (e.g. Hispi, Greyhound, Durham Early)
      • Early varieties of Broccoli (e.g. Sprouting Summer Purple)
      • Early varieties of Cauliflower (e.g. Snowball) or All Year Round
    • Lettuce
    • Spinach
    • Herbs such as Coriander, Parsley, and Dill
The ideal germination temperature for the above is approximately the ambient temperature of your house, so if you have a spare windowsill (ideally not above a radiator as you want the temperature to be as consistent as possible, and also not too hot) that would be perfect. There is no need for any light whatsoever at this stage, they just need warmth and moisture to germinate. Once they have sprouted and you can see some green then they will need light from this stage onwards. A south facing windowsill will be good enough, but double glazed windows mean that light quality and quantity is not as good as they would receive in a cold frame, greenhouse, or grow light, so you may find that you need to turn your seed/module trays around fairly regularly (every day or so) to prevent them from growing towards the light and becoming bent. Note that even with turning them around regularly, they will likely become a bit leggy (tall and thin), but you can remedy this to some extent when you come to plant them out, by planting them fairly deeply in the compost/soil. If you think this may be an issue for you with the nursery space currently available to you, then it may be worth sowing them more towards the end of the month than the middle, to minimise the amount of time they will spend inside the house.
 

The following seeds can also be sown from mid February in seed or module trays, but these will specifically require warmth, or at least will germinate with a higher success rate (and quicker) with bottom heat, ideally in the 21-29°C (70-85°F) range. They will also need to be grown on undercover (i.e. a greenhouse, poly tunnel, or perhaps a cold-frame for smaller plants) for the duration of the season, unless you live in a very warm part of the UK with an optimal microclimate for growing these heat loving crops:

    • Peppers, including both:
      • Sweet Peppers
      • Chillies / Chilli Peppers
    • Aubergines
Towards the end of February, you can also sow the following, still undercover in seed/module trays, but without any requirement for bottom heat:
    • Onions (seeds, not sets)
    • Peas (to harvest pea shoots, as opposed to pods – wait until March to sow for the latter)
    • Kohl Rabi
    • Beetroot
    • Radishes (although these grow so quickly that you may be better just sowing them directly in the ground in March)

Harvesting

If you were growing last year and planted produce for winter harvests, remember to keep picking! Some of the things you may still have in the garden include: 

    • Winter cabbages
    • Brussels Sprouts
    • Kale
    • Chard
    • Spinach
    • Coriander
    • Parsnips
    • Swede
    • Carrots
    • Leeks

Pruning

If you have existing fruit bushes or trees, such as the following, February is your last opportunity if you need to do some winter pruning before sap rises in March: 

    • Apple & Pear trees
    • Quince & Medlar trees
    • Citrus trees
    • Raspberries (Summer fruiting varieties are best pruned in early autumn after they have finished fruiting, but can still be done now – it’s just harder to tell which is new wood and which is 2nd year growth by this time of year. February is a good time to prune autumn fruiting varieties too and these are easier; just cut them all down to ground level)
    • Blackberries (treat the same as summer fruiting raspberries; best pruned in autumn but can still be pruned now, it’s just more difficult to determine which canes to prune)
    • Red, white and blackcurrants
    • Gooseberry bushes