Paul Gargan
Some people find February a slow month in the garden, but it shouldn’t be. Spring will arrive before you know and everything will need doing at once. So make the most of February as it is your last chance to finish winter-work and get a head start on Spring.
Clear your beds and borders of weeds now and you will find it easy to keep them close for the coming year. Let them grow and set seed and you face a large-scale, time-consuming job later in the year.
Weeds are capable of growth during mild spells in Winter and early Spring and it is amazing how much growth they can achieve during supposedly dormant months.
Clear your beds and borders of established weeds now and it will be just a matter of running a hoe through them to them weed-free for the year.
Dig out self-sown Ash and Sycamore seedlings, ivy and brambles whose seeds have been spread by birds.
They are usually growing in hard-to-see places like the middle of shrubs where the foliage has been hiding them – it’s easier to see them now that your shrubs may have bare stems.
For many people mowing their lawn becomes a chore. This may be because in rural areas gardens tend to be bigger with more grass to cut or because it is a job that must be finished once you start – you can’t come back to it another day.
Why? Reduce the size of your lawn or replace it altogether. Plant a woodland. It is said that as few as three trees make a woodland and it’s true that even the smallest is a valuable natural habitat.
There is no garden that will not be improved by the addition of a tree or trees.
Even those with restricted space should not forfeit the pleasure of enjoying trees in their garden. There are many small-scale trees both deciduous and evergreen which are suitable for small gardens. By incorporating them into the design you are in effect contributing a sense of scale, as well as giving height in what might otherwise prove to be a flat site and one lacking in interest.
Small gardens
A small group of trees is more valuable both naturally and visually than a single tree, even if the single one is bigger than the group put together.
For small gardens, Malus ‘Red Sentinel’ (Crab Apple) or Sorbus Aucuparia (Mountain Ash) are examples of suitable trees. They give long seasons of interest as they have flowers in Spring, leaf in Summer, and both fruit and leaf colour in Autumn.
For larger gardens there are really no limits to what you can plant. It need not be expensive as you can plant small ‘whips’ or transplants which are cheap to buy bare root.