What To Do In The Garden In February

“February is the border between Winter and Spring…”  February in the garden feels as like it’s been a long time coming after the 186 days of January. But walking around our garden and orchard, it seems as if the signs of Spring are finally beginning to appear. Little splashes of colour, lots of new growth, and the welcome sound of birdsong and frog croaks. Let’s take a look at this month’s garden tasks and what to do in your garden in February.

What To Do In The Garden In February

To make reading easier, I’ll break my garden update down into sections: flowers, vegetables, fruits, jobs, wildlife. So, you can skip to whatever you want to read about – although obviously I hope you’ll enjoy the full article with this month’s garden tasks and all my February gardening tips too 🙂

February In The Flower Garden

The superstar flowering plants in February have to be Hellebores, which bloom from mid-January until April. Yes, they’re expensive to buy, but they last for years, so I’d argue they’re great value.

If you can find some on the sale table at garden centres, you’ll be winning. Don’t worry about what they look like on top, as long as their roots are healthy, they’ll settle in and grow away very happily – aren’t they stunning?

Still flowering away next to our front door is my favourite Winter Honeysuckle, with her delicate little white blooms. Also by our front door is a fragrant little Sarcococca (sweet box) which is perfect to pick for bedside posies. We have a couple more Sarcococcas in the garden too, and scent pouring out of these tiny little white flowers really has to be experienced to be believed!

If you’re wondering what flowers to plant in February then take a trip to your local garden centre where you’ll be spoilt for choice: vibrant yellow tete-a-tetes, multi-coloured primroses, zingy little crocuses, irises (cover pic), and more.

Or you could try some colourful Winter pansies and some delicate little wild Cyclamen. Cheap to buy and easy to grow, they’re perfect for naturalising in the ground and are also really good Winter plants for pots.

Other splashes of colour come from the zingy green Euphorbias, ruby-red Skimmias, and smoky purple Hebes. All these perennial shrubs are easy to grow and seem to be unfazed by drought, heat, rain, ice, snow, and whatever else our changing UK climate throws at us. Highly recommended for any garden.

Aren’t these Snowdrops in our orchard and rockery beautiful? Top tip: once the flowers have died back you can lift, divide, and replant them to increase your plant stock. Planting snowdrops “in the green” is much more effective than planting sad little dried out bulbs from a plastic bag.  Simply dig up a clump, split it into smaller clumps of 3-5 plants, and replant wherever you see a gap.

As you may recall, I tried sowing Sweet Pea* seeds in the greenhouse again last month – without any great success, so perhaps third time’s a charm this February, fingers crossed. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the colour and scent from the Hyacinths and Cyclamen on our kitchen windowsill – both can be planted out in the garden once they’ve finished flowering.

February In The Vegetable Garden

Vegetables in February are still in the planning stage. I’m mulling buying and chitting some Seed Potatoes ready for planting in March/April. But there’s no sign of life from the second batch of Broad Beans* I sowed last month (thank you, Jack Frost). So I’ll dig over our raised beds shortly and place a few cloches* over the soil to warm up the ground for a few weeks before direct sowing some more beans next month.

February In The Fruit Garden

Fruit in February is non-existent in our garden. I’ve already pruned back our Grapevine to just above a new bud on the main frame. And I’ve done the same with our Gooseberries and Blackcurrants, where you want to cut side shoots back to three buds from their base. This month is also your last chance to prune Autumn fruiting raspberry canes if you have any. Our Apple and Pear fruit trees are booked in for their prune next month, but we’ll leave our soft fruit Plum and Cherry trees alone until the Summer.

However, it’s a different story indoors, where we’re overwintering some tender outdoor plants in our conservatory. Tip: remember to feed and water your house plants only when their soil feels dry. We’ve been picking lots of edible pelargonium leaves for herb teas, and are looking forward to harvesting our lemons for gin and tonics later this Summer 🙂

General February Gardening Jobs

What should I do in my garden in February? Top of my February gardening to do list is a carry forward from last month, to clean all the seed trays, pots, baskets, and containers. Yes, it’s time to start thinking about sowing your hardy annual flower seeds and potting up any Summer flowering bulbs. Although I’ve already moved all the newly sprouting tulip pots that I finished planting up at the end of last year into various spots around the garden.

It’s time to prune your Hydrangeas, and another top tip is to save the attractive seed heads for your indoor dried flower displays. The same goes for deciduous Ornamental Grasses left standing over Winter, which need cutting back to a few centimetres above any emerging fresh green shoots. They also look great in a slender vase to showcase their elegant featheriness.

And you can now prune your Wisterias and any overwintered Fuchsias back to one or two buds on each shoot. Don’t forget to put in any necessary plant supports now, before they start growing away again, and keep removing any dead flowers from your bedding and flowering shrubs like these two Sedums, to encourage new growth. Lastly, Alan has just given the lawn its first light trim of the year, but not the orchard as we have hundreds of newly emerging Spring bulbs everywhere.

February Gardening For Wildlife

This month isn’t as hard on wildlife as January but even so, Alan keeps all our bird feeders topped up with quality wild bird food* every day, and hangs out some high energy fat balls* too.

In case you’re wondering why there’s a football in the pond, here’s a February pond care tip: this prevents a solid edge-to-edge ice sheet forming so any frogs, newts, or fish don’t suffocate.

On the subject of frogs, look who I managed to photograph in our smaller wildlife pond! Such a joy to see them back again, we’ll be keeping our eyes open for any frogspawn clumps in the coming days.

Our Garden In February

And that concludes my second garden post of 2023. I hope you’ve found it a useful guide and reminder of things to do in your garden in February. And that you’ll join me next month for my March garden update when some of those daffodil shoots in our orchard will have burst into gorgeously bright, sunny, yellow flowers 🙂

How has your garden fared so far this year? Have the prolonged icy spells called time on any of your plants? What are you looking forward to doing in your garden in February?

* This post features affiliate links but all opinions are my own (see my Disclaimer).