FEBRUARY

FRUIT

·         Inspect any stored fruit and remove any that are rotten.

·         If conditions are right, continue planting fruit trees and bushes.

·         Apply potash to apples, pears and plums.

·         Apply Nitrogen to trees in grass - early February, late February for those in cultivated land.

·         Mulch young trees, bushes and cane fruit with manure or compost.

·         Prune newly planted and established stone fruits as growth begins - late February.

·         Continue to prune apples and pears, new and established, except in hard frosts.

·         Prune cobnuts and filberts provided catkins are fully open, releasing pollen otherwise delay until March.

·         Prune autumn fruiting raspberries. Tip prune summer fruiting raspberries and cut down newly planted canes to 9 - 12 inches.

·         Cover strawberries for an early crop - poly tunnel or cloche.

·         Protect blossom on wall trained trees by covering with Hessian, netting etc, hand pollinate if flowering early and no insects about.

·         Complete spraying with tar oil - early February.

·         Spray for peach leaf curl as for January, finish before middle of the month.

·         Inspect apple and pears for canker treat if necessary spray severely infected trees.

VEGETABLES

·         Buy potatoes for chitting - earlies.

·         Sow tomatoes under glass for planting in a cool greenhouse.

·         Lift, divide and replant crowns of rhubarb.

·         Continue to dig and cultivate ground.

·         Sow French beans under glass for early crops.

·         Lift, divide and pot up plants of chives for growing on the window sill.

·         Sow carrots under cloches or in soil based cold frames for early crops.

LAWNS

·         If the weather is mild, worm activity will begin use a besom to scatter the casts.

·         Finish any turfing this month.

·         Soil preparation can begin later in the month for sowing grass seed if weather suitable.

GARDENING BY MONTH

Gardening in January
Gardening in February
Gardening in March
Gardening in April
Gardening in May
Gardening in June
Gardening in July
Gardening in August
Gardening in September
Gardening in October
Gardening in November
Gardening in December

The above helpful advice has been reproduced by kind permission of Will Hart, whose experience includes working for Blackburn Rovers FC (as a groundsman at their Training Ground, Academy and Ewood Park), for the Sultan of Oman (at his French residence in Fontainebleau, south of Paris) at the 1999 Martell Grand National at Aintree and for a variety of different sized local gardens and estates.  Impressive credentials I am sure you will agree!

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