Garden Advice For February 2009
February 03 2009
We are now at the end of the darkest quarter of the year, with its centre on the shortest day, around December 21st, begins around the 5th November, and ends about the February 4th. This means that by February the days are getting noticeably longer, and the sun seems a little stronger, as it rises a little higher each day.
The weather, of course, may not follow this trend and the worst conditions of the winter can occur in February. Much traditional weather lore centres on the fact that from this point onwards the winter weather might go either way: A fine, dry Candlemas [ 2nd February] means there’s plenty of cold and wet still to come; whereas a cold, wet Candlemas promises an end to winter and an early spring.
In the garden this means: Don’t be tempted by a spell of sunny, warm weather into thinking spring has arrived – proceed with caution.
Harvest Fresh…
Winter cabbage, leeks, brussel sprouts, swede and kale continue to crop, while the Sprouting Brocolli starts cropping this month with a welcome flush of tender and tasty new growth. Much breeding work has been done on Sprouting Broccoli in recent years, and a variety of types and cropping seasons are available. The cheap basic seeds like Early White Sprouting or Early Purple Sprouting tend to be a bit variable in the plants you get, the named varieties are more expensive but more uniform in result.
Plant
Jerusalem Artichokes will start to sprout later this month. So lift crops for eating that are still in the ground, and plant tubers for the new seasons crop. Apart from tubers this crop grows a great deal of compost material, and its fibrous roots are said to help break up a clay soil.
Onion and Shallot sets and Garlic cloves can be planted this month if the soil is workable. Plant the shallot ‘Sante’ in April though.
Prepare Seed Beds for early sowings by covering with well-anchored fleece or plastic. When the soil is warmed up the new weed seedlings will tell you its time to sow, so hoe, sow, and put back the fleece to speed up germination. Use Cloches similarly. Early sowings might include hardy peas and broad beans, and beetroot.
Chitting Early Potatoes
Early varieties of potatoes should be put to chit this month. This is an indoor job for a frost free but well lit place. A garage window often serves.
Place the tubers in egg trays or cartons with the ‘rose end’ up. You can identify this end as it will have the most eyes [buds] on it. Leave in the light so the eyes can grow into short stocky shoots before planting out in a month or so. Why? Well the time the tubers are sprouting in the garage comes off their total growing time, so your final crop will be that much quicker, and you cant just put them in the ground earlier as they might be set back, or even killed by freezing weather.
Choose Asparagus crowns from mail order firms for delivery in March. Get your asparagus bed prepared well in advance of a March planting. Traditionally it takes a year to get the bed ready, removing all perennial weeds and manuring over winter. A warm, well drained spot will give earlier spears.
The Fruit Garden
Finish winter pruning this month, and continue to force rhubarb.
Early flowering Prunus species – Almond, Apricot, Peach and Nectarine – may need some frost protection for the blossom in very hard weather. Keep a cover for them handy.
Hand Pollinating
If you have these early flowering trees in the greenhouse they will be safe from frost but less likely to be visited by insects. Help to pollinate them by transferring pollen from flower to flower. Use a very soft small paint brush or cotton bud - traditionally a rabbits tail was used for this – and gently push it into each flower, and repeat this about twice a week while the flowers are there.
Wildlife and Pest Control
Put up nest boxes for the birds this month as they will also act as roosting places on cold nights. Make sure your boxes – especially the hole size – fit in with recommended dimensions. Make sure the edges of the holes are smooth. The smallest hole should be 7/8ths of an inch diameter [for blue tits] with larger holes suitable for great tits, though they may have to wrestle the sparrows for them. It’s the thin-billed insect eating birds that are most useful in controlling caterpillars and aphids in the food garden, and those birds that are with us all year do the greatest work by reducing the numbers of over-wintering aphids, eggs and pupae in the tree bark, etc. The lower the number of aphids that start the season, the less of a plague there will be later in the year.
If you haven’t cleaned up your pond yet, do it before the frog spawn and toad spawn arrives - any day now!
Phil Corbett
Cool Temperate Nursery
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