Gardening Diary

'All the months of the year curse a fair februeer"

Just as for January, no good will come from a warm February, cold and dormancy is still what’s called for in the garden. If the wind is in the east at the beginning of the month, winter is likely to remain for some weeks to come, indeed snow and ice may be expected, but if the wind is mild and westerly we may expect the worst of winter to be behind us. During clement spells of weather we should be pressing on with the steadily lengthening list of jobs to be carried out in the garden.

Winter flowering shrubs may be pruned as they finish flowering. With Winter Jasmine train as many recently flowered shoots along the wall as necessary and cut back the rest to four buds from the base, these should then make good growth for next winter.

Buddleia Davidii is a subject that greatly enjoys hard treatment, sometime between St. Patrick's Day and Good Friday prune back to four or so buds. Hydrangea paniculata may be treated in the same way, likewise the red and yellow stemmed dogwoods, the stems of these may be used as cuttings; place them in fine soil in a sheltered out-of-the-way spot and they should make root by autumn.

All too often we see weak and sickly plants in the border, but this can be avoided with a just a few hours' light work; those plants which have not been recently moved may be fed with a general fertiliser, preferably with manure or compost lightly dug in at the same time.

It will pay to start spraying the roses at the end of the month as the stems will most likely be hosting overwintering fungal spores, the main thing is to prevent the appearance of mould on the leaf, by which time it is too late to eradicate, regular applications as directed should see off the fungus for the rest of the year.

Box edgings may be planted and if wallflowers, forget-me-nots and polyanthuses are still to be put out, this should be done without delay, we may also be planting hollyhocks, verbenas, foxgloves, sweet Williams and Canterbury bells.

The keen vegetable gardener will have been greatly cheered by that most glorious of early winter sights, namely the the upthrustings of a line of sturdy green cotyledons, heralding the successful germination of their Broad beans. Our thoughts may at last be turning to which crops we might sow to encourage and cheer us through the long gloom of Lent. Any ground preparation or early seed sowing must be governed by the weather; excess rain or cold should see us off to the shed for yet more tool sharpening and brooding over seed catalogues. and the disgraceful state of English cricket.

If the weather is fine and 'open' and the reader has a south facing or otherwise sheltered veg. patch, we may sow some seed under cloches, assuming of course a fine tilth has first been achieved. Onion, pea, parsnip, lettuce, broad bean, Brussels sprout and radish

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may be tried. Radishes must be grown fast to be tender and mild, any check to growth leads to hot and woody specimens, disdained even by the poultry. Protect from frost. Garlic and shallots to go in around Valentine's day.

Mice find peas dipped in diesel or paraffin an unappetising snack.

That long-neglected Rhubarb clump may now be lifted and divided. One good eye per clump. For sticks to be proud of, divisions should not to be harvested until next year.

Fruit trees grown in lawn or meadow will benefit from a helping of Nitrogen.

Chives may be divided and replanted at the end of the month.

For most right-minded people these last few months have been trying and tiresome and diversion may always be had in the garden,: the ever-lengthening list of jobs to be carried out before Spring should leave no time for ennui or melancholy and any work carried out now will greatly ease the pressure later on.

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