Tasks for February

Prune your roses this month before the spring takes a proper hold and they're starting to put on new growth. Bush and shrub roses should be first on your list: climbers are usually pruned in autumn, and you should leave rambling roses alone altogether – they're pruned after they've finished flowering, in late summer. Arm yourself with a pair of [...]

Plant an edible hedge for a dual-purpose garden feature which tastes as good as it looks – and is really useful too! Any kind of hedge is a wonderful asset to the garden, filtering wind to protect your crops and providing shelter for birds, beetles and frogs – your personal pest control army. However they do take up a lot [...]

Build a composting area in a corner of your garden and you'll never regret it. In goes kitchen peelings, garden prunings and autumn leaves; out comes lovely, crumbly black gold, rich and ready to spread on the garden to feed your plants. Once you get into composting, one bin just isn't enough: three is the ideal (one to fill, one [...]

Prune hardy fuchsias to tidy them up while the spring shoots are still dormant, and you'll find they erupt in fresh green growth from next month onwards ready for their lovely long-lasting display of pendent purple and red flowers through summer. There are plenty of varieties of fuchsia able to survive even quite a hard winter: most are related to [...]

Stock up on seeds for next winter's crop now as big, beefy brassicas like Savoy cabbages, Brussels sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli need almost a year to grow to full size. Make the most of the great range of seed varieties you'll find here at our our garden centre in %locations% by sowing two or three different ones for each [...]

There are enough bright sunshiny days to get outside, just for a while, to admire the spring bulbs and put the first seeds in. It may be early - but it's definitely spring at last! General tasks: Float a football on the pond to keep a small area free from ice so fish and other creatures can breathe and plants [...]

February's plant of the month is heather, often unfairly undervalued - but if you dismiss it you're missing a trick, as it's a star performer in the garden at this time of year. There are over 4000 species to choose from, with flowers in white, pink and purple and foliage colours varying from bright green, olive green and golden, and [...]

Plant lilies en masse in the garden for an explosion of colour and scent – not to mention a magnificent display of huge, showy flowers that takes your breath away. Bulbs are just appearing on our shelves right now, so the sooner you visit the better your chances of picking up the variety you want. Queen of them all is [...]