Spring Fever

With the first of the year's snow melting into memory thoughts are turning to spring. February is here and spring is just around the corner. In every gardening magazine and book available there are long lists telling gardeners of all the things which need to be done this month and all other months. There is no time to sit around reading about it there is work to do!

Ready for action

Where to start? Retail therapy!

Time for an outing to the garden centre to spend spend spend (much more fun than clinically shopping on the internet). The shopping list is seed potatoes; summer flowering bulbs; flower and vegetable seeds and seed compost. It is guaranteed that however good your intentions not to overdo it you will come back with far more than you intended, well perhaps the secateurs need replacing, and there's canes, twine, more fleece, netting, polythene for cloches, how about more plant labels? Oh and look at those........ Your get my drift!

Where will I put the seeds?!

Once back home and the car is unloaded it is time to get a move on but before you start sowing all those seeds is the greenhouse clean and tidy (you really should have done it at the end of autumn!) are the windows cleaned? Have you washed all the pots and seed trays? Look out for hibernating wasps and toads in the pots. Once all that cleaning and tidying is done its time to get messy (or is that just me who makes a mess?). Get all those empty egg boxes you've stored and put the early seed potatoes in to start them chitting. Now open the sack of saved toilet roll tubes (doesn't everyone save them?) to start the broad beans off, and peas and sweet peas if you haven't already got them sown. In cells or seed trays sow early carrots, parsnips, radish, spinach, turnips, leeks, onions, and brassicas to name but a few. Once all the early veg are sown move on to summer bedding seeds, I am not going to start listing them all because you will have already chosen your favourites. I do hope there's plenty of shelf space in the greenhouse amongst all the overwintering plants. If there is room owners of heated propagators can sow some tomato seeds too.

A lot of work needed here

Outside the borders need lightly digging over for the summer bulbs to be put in; the dormant shrubs and trees need pruning; shrubs in the wrong place need moving; the spring flowering plants you bought need putting in (you thought I hadn't noticed them at the garden centre!); overgrown perennials need splitting and there's plenty of tidying to be done. I've probably missed out loads of things but as I said there are lists everywhere so you can double check what else needs to be done. Or just look round the garden.

 

Cloched for business

Trainee Pruning Inspector

Once you are satisfied that the decorative garden is sorted out it is time to move on to the vegetable plot (or allotment), plenty to do here. The soil needs digging over and organic matter dug in; cloches need to be put over the soil to warm it up, assuming we get some sunshine; fruit trees and bushes will need feeding and mulching and spraying; cover the gooseberry bushes with netting so the bullfinches can't eat the buds and while you've got the netting out cover the overwintering brassicas so the pigeons can't get fat on your crop. Next grab some fleece to wrap up the cauliflowers against frost (maybe another job which should have been done last year) it's probably worth putting some over the fruit trees too so the flower buds don't get caught by early frosts. If you succumbed to new fruit trees and bushes this is the time to plant them. Then dig some drills for sowing garlic, shallot sets and Jerusalem artichokes. Fancy some wine? Well get some grapevines planted too. Lastly for now, you have turned the compost heap and tidied the shed haven't you?! 

February Last Year!

Oh all right – perhaps now it is dark its time for a hot bath to soak all the aching muscles after all that work.

All this can only be achieved if the weather is kind, no more freezing temperatures, snow, driving rain or howling gales. We'll be lucky!

There's only four weeks until March, then it gets busier, and even busier in April, and May......