February
In The Fruit Garden This February
Prune blackcurrant bushes, gooseberries and redcurrants to maintain a productive framework.
Mulch fruit trees with well-rotted manure or garden compost, taking care not to mound mulch up around the trunk.
Winter prune apple trees and pear trees while they’re still dormant. This is your last chance to do so.
Prune raspberry canes. It’s your last chance to cut autumn-fruiting raspberry canes to the ground to stimulate new canes to fruit in the autumn. Cut the tips of summer-fruiting raspberry canes that have grown beyond the top of their supports, cut just above the bud.
Protect blossoms on apricots, nectarines and peaches from frost, but make sure pollinating insects can still reach the flowers.
Force rhubarb plants for an early crop.
Leave plum trees, cherry trees and apricots until the summer as pruning these fruit trees now will make the susceptible to silver leaf disease.
Cover outdoor strawberries with cloches to encourage an earlier crop.
Top Tip:
Top dress fruit bushes with slow-release, potassium-rich fertiliser to feed plants for the forthcoming season.
This Month's Key Tips
- Prepare vegetable seed beds and sow some vegetables undercover.
- Net fruit and vegetable crops to keep birds away.
- Prune winter-flowering shrubs if they have finished flowering.
- Prune wisteria and hardy evergreen hedges.
- Cut back deciduous grasses left uncut over winter.
