We are now in late winter, during February you'll be able to see the first signs spring is approaching, with bulbs appearing and wildlife becoming more active now day light and temperatures start to increase.  There is plenty you can do indoors to prepare for the coming months ahead.  Outdoors, it's time to prune shrubs, climbers and evergreen hedges.

Jobs For February

• Protect blossom on fruit trees/bushes
• Prune winter flowering shrubs that have finished flowering
• Divide bulbs such as snowdrops and plant them in other areas of the garden
• Prune climbers such as wisteria
• Prune hardy evergreen hedges and renovate overgrown deciduous hedges.  Birds will start nesting in March, to help them continue to survive, please do not cut bushes if you can see a nest is being built or lived in.
• Prune climbers such as bougainvillea
• Cut back deciduous grasses left uncut over the winter, remove dead grass from evergreen grasses
• Brunnera macrophylla Jack Frost - take root cuttings
• Geum - Cut back
• Geum - Plant in sun to partial shade in moist but well drained soil.  They do not like a hot position or too much wet in winter.
• Hellebores - cut back when new flower and leaves shart to appear
• Hellebores - Now available to buy in garden centres
• Pineapple Broom Tree - prune to shape or to removed dead and diseased branches
• Snowdrops - plant them in the green, when they still have leaves but flowers have died off.  This is because the bulbs can dry out.
• Primroses: Flowering primroses should be available in shops to plant out in the garden.
• Strawberry Tree - Prune, keep it light to stop excessive growth.  Cut just above healthy buds or branches
• Wallflowers sow outdoors.  They need to be in the soil they will eventually grow in, add lots of garden soil to the compost.  Leave in shade.  Plant out in October or Spring.  Do not move them after planted, their roots need to be touching soil

February In The Garden

Pick a nice day to potter. For those itching to get into the garden on those rare but exceptional, sunny February days, there are plenty of reasons to go and make the most of them.  Even though the weather may be cold and the plants still dormant, there are still many useful things you can do to keep your garden looking its best, healthy and ready for spring.

February Is All About Pruning, Cleaning, Protecting, Planning & Preparing...
First on the February list of garden jobs is to continue to tidy up your garden, clearing out any leaf litter, weeds, or dead plants that could give rise to disease and harm your garden.  Clearing the debris will also help you to identify where new gaps in the border have appeared, and in the process, created space for new plants.

Note on Wildlife If you want a wildlife friendly space, then do not tidy.  There are insects hiding in all that untidyness that will fed the birds, while the leaf litter, dying stems and dropped branches will feed the ground.

Pruning Ornamental Trees, Shrubs & Woody Plants

Now is the time to start Pruning ornamental trees, shrubs and woody plants that flower late in the summer.  Most are dormant and have shed their leaves, making it easy to identify and access stems/branches that need to be trimmed back or removed.

First of all get rid of any branches that are dead, showing mould or disease, or crossing.  Make sure you clean your tools after removing diseased branches so you don't spread it around your garden.  Then stand back and look at the overall shape of the plant.  Remove any stems or branches that overlap, are growing in the wrong direction or swamping other nearby plants, to improve its overall shape and encourage vigorous new growth.

Note on Wildlife It's always a good idea to removed diseased branches, prune if the bush is taking over public spaces or roadways.  But generally wildlife doesn't care how tidy a bush or tree is, as long as it gives them protection.  Wild Bees need old and dead trees to nest in, and the ground needs decaying leaf, stems and branches to fed it.

Sweep & Clear Any Paths Or Walkways

Sweep and clear any paths or walkways in your garden, this will prevent them from becoming a slippery hazard but also reduce the number of weeds that are trying to get an early foothold in the gaps.

Winter Protection

Make sure all your winter protection, fleece, tunnels and cloches are still in place and able to protect your plants.

Getting Ready For Spring

Now is the time to get your garden ready for spring, by doing some preparation and planning.

If the ground is free of puddles and ice, dig over your beds, and enrich the soil with compost and soil conditioner like well rotted manure, organic matter or compost.  This will improve the structure, drainage, and fertility of your soil, and make it easier for your plants to grow.

Note on Wildlife In the wild there would be animals, such as pigs, who would dig and turn the soil.  Horses would leave manure behind.  And Cows would spread seeds about.  It's likely that you don't have these animals, so you need to replace their functions in nature.  It's ok to dig and turn your soil, this helps air to circulate, move any seeds in the soil around, and allowing leaf, stems and branches to be buried which will fed the ground.  It's ok to add in your own homemade compost, it's ok to add in horse manure as long as the horse hasn't been treated with any chemicals that would unbalance your soil, such as flea treatments and antibiotics.

There is also a movement towards no dig which advocates not disturbing roots and the beasties that live in the soil.  You could also try this out on a section of your garden as an experiment to see what happens.

More articles about wildlife gardening:

1.  How to attract birds to your garden
2.  How to attract bees to your garden
3.  Sowing and growing wildflowers