As winter loosens its grip, February brings practical opportunities to tidy, plant and set gardens up for a stronger, more rewarding spring

Spring is just around the corner and the days are finally getting noticeably longer! The snowdrops, primroses and daffodils will be opening soon, and some may well be already out in some sheltered spots.
On milder days there is still time this month to plant bare-rooted plants – the soil will soon be starting to warm up and this will give the plants a good start when the sap starts to rise. While doing this, dig out any perennial weeds in your beds and borders: dig them up, roots and all, before the weather warms up.
The quiet time in the garden is a good time for those maintenance jobs: get out of the rain by cleaning up and washing all the pots in the greenhouse this month: this will help keep pests under control. Also bring bags of potting compost into the greenhouse or conservatory now to warm up, before using later in February or March.
How about installing a water butt now, too, ready for the summer? Rainwater is particularly useful for watering acid-loving, ericaceous plants.
And why not find out what type of soil you have? Invest in a soil testing kit to help you choose the right plants for your garden.
If you have a cold greenhouse you can start potted fuchsias back into growth this month. Prune your overwintered fuchsias back to one or two buds on each shoot. Clean up the top of the pots (no need to repot yet – wait until there are active growing shoots). For the next few months, if you pinch out the lead bud on every shoot, you will have lots more flowers in the summer. Late February you can also start dahlias into growth by planting the tubers up in pots.

Getting things done outdoors
Outside, all potted plants will benefit from a top dressing with organic fertiliser, such as garden compost, well-rotted cow and/or poultry manure, blood, fish and bone meal. Seaweed fertiliser is one of the most beneficial fertilisers.
Also, this is the right month to cut back wisteria side shoots to three buds from the main stem, to encourage flowers this spring.
Prune buddleia Davidii (the butterfly bush) hard, right back to the base, to keep these vigorous shrubs to a reasonable size, then feed with an organic fertiliser.
Before the birds start nesting, trim back ivy and deciduous hedges, Virginia creeper and other climbers. Prune summer-flowering clematis towards the end of the month, before active growth begins – cut stems back to healthy buds about 30cm from the base.
Also cut back old stems of herbaceous perennials and ornamental grasses.
February can be a particularly hard time for birds, so ensure your bird feeders are clean and regularly stocked – and maybe put up some nest boxes for garden birds to pick themselves a home.

Barry Cuff takes a look back through his notes on what happened on his Sturminster Newton plot last month

Three days of frosts at the beginning of the month (one was down to –7ºC!) appear to have done little or no damage, thankfully: the phacelia, our green manure, was partly killed out by the hardest frost but our salad leaves are all protected with fleece.
The very high rainfall kept us off the plot in January, except for gathering vegetables and pruning the fruit bushes. We did no groundwork at all except for adding manure to any areas cleared of produce – and we carried this out using planks across the soil, or from the paths.
Hopefully February will be a much drier month, and we can start digging and preparing the soil for sowing and planting in March.
Pruning: All the fruit bushes were pruned. We had a lot of gall mite (big bud) on the blackcurrants this year, so all buds have been removed and bagged. These will be burnt later with all the other prunings
Potatoes: Val and I made our annual trip to Mill House Nurseries at Owermoigne to buy our seed potatoes. This year there were 73 varieties to choose from – it’s almost certainly the largest selection in Dorset. They were made up of 19 first earlies, 22 second earlies and 32 main crop. This year we have decided to try a few Orla, a first early with excellent taste. The remainder – Charlotte, Jazzy, Sagitta, Caledonian Rose and Desiree – are all varieties which we have tried and tested in previous years, and all have been chosen for their reliability, taste, yield and cooking qualities (especially for salads, roasting and making chips). The average cost was 21p per spud.
Peas: While we were at at Mill House, we also bought this year’s peas – Hurst Green Shaft. Sold loose, we got approx 1,800 seeds for £3.50, which is very good value.
Seeds: We always test any open packets for germination – if stored correctly, the germs hold up well even on two and three year old seed.
New seed we tend to trust, though we always check the germ of new parsnip seed as it can be poor (there is no marketing standard for parsnip as there is on all other vegetables)
Sowing: In the propagator we have sown the sweet chillis. In the greenhouse, we have two varieties of broad beans – Witkim manita and Masterpiece Green Logpod. We also have two varieties of sweet pea, a tray of agricultural peas for salads and also a tray of mixed leaves for salads.
Fresh vegetables: We have continued to pick leeks, celeriac, parsnip, carrot, cauliflower, sprouts
and broccoli.
From the store: We’ve still got supplies of potatoes, onions and squash, as well as garlic and hazelnuts.
In the freezer: We’re still enjoying last season’s broad beans, peas, sweetcorn and French beans.
Salads: We always enjoy our tasty colourful salads at this time of year, and everything is picked fresh from the plot. For salad leaves we grow winter cress, mizuna, radicchio, red and green mustards and chicons. To the leaves we usually add several roots – celeriac and various radishes: white daikon, red and blue moon.