As the final weeks of winter unfold, February offers British gardeners a golden opportunity to lay the groundwork for a spectacular spring. While the weather may still be fickle, a mix of indoor and outdoor tasks can provide a significant head start for the growing season ahead.
Indoor Sowing and Early Planting
February is prime time for starting a variety of seeds indoors, where conditions can be carefully controlled. Vegetables such as lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, chillies, and salad leaves can be sown now, alongside kale, peas, and leeks. For those seeking floral colour, cosmos, salvias, and sweet peas are excellent choices to begin inside.
If you're in a milder part of the UK and the soil is workable—neither frozen solid nor waterlogged—you can risk sowing some hardy vegetables directly outdoors. Broad beans, cabbages, carrots, and parsnips can be planted under protective cloches. However, if conditions are not favourable, it is wise to wait until March when the ground has thawed further.
Pruning, Planting, and Preparation
This month is also critical for planting bare-root stock. If you have purchased bare-root roses, fruit bushes, or shrubs, and the soil is manageable, plant them now to allow establishment before summer. Raspberry canes and bare-root strawberries can also go in the ground in February, weather permitting.
Pruning tasks are abundant. Winter-flowering shrubs like winter jasmine should be cut back once their display ends. Later in the month, you can prune roses, along with Group Two and Three clematis, wisteria, and summer-flowering shrubs such as buddleia and Hydrangea paniculata. It's also an ideal time to tidy up fruit bushes like blackcurrants and gooseberries. Deciduous hedges can be trimmed before birds begin nesting in March.
Bulbs, Protection, and Houseplant Care
Don't forget summer-flowering bulbs. Start lily bulbs in a cool room or greenhouse, and pot up overwintered dahlia tubers in a bright spot. Gladioli corms can be given a flying start in seed trays in a light, warm location for earlier blooms.
February can still bring harsh frosts, so inspect netting and horticultural fleece to ensure tender plants remain shielded. You can warm soil for earlier outdoor sowing by covering it with cardboard, old sheets, bubble wrap, or cloches.
Indoors, ensure houseplants receive adequate light by moving them closer to windows, away from draughts. Be cautious not to overwater—check compost moisture with your finger before reaching for the watering can. Keep foliage dust-free to aid photosynthesis.
Essential Maintenance and Deadheading
Use this time to service your garden equipment. Clean and oil tools, scrub containers ready for sowing, and ensure your lawnmower is serviced for spring.
One of the most rewarding tasks is deadheading. Removing spent blooms from pot-grown violas and pansies now will encourage them to spring back to life as the weather warms. Do the same for early-flowering primulas and clear any fallen foliage from containers to discourage slugs and snails.
Finally, 'chit' first early seed potatoes by placing them in egg cartons or trays, eye-end up, on a light windowsill. Once shoots reach about 2cm in a few weeks, they'll be ready for planting outdoors from March onwards.
