Planning, design and construction

Are you planning to build a garden house, shed, greenhouse or other structure this year? Then this is the right time to start thinking about it. Make a garden design with our garden drawing program. With tekenjetuin.nl you can make a design of your own garden with the new structure in it. You can see in 3D whether the size is right.

• Check out our Plant Encyclopedia to see which plantings are right for your garden. You can also view the characteristics of your current plantings.
• A MicroDrip system from Gardena is super convenient. How nice is it to never have to water again?
• Garden lighting brings atmosphere to the garden. In your design, create a diagram of your new wiring right away.
• Have you decided to install the above systems? Then do so in February before the plants start coming back up.
• Planning to build a playground equipment in the garden? Do it now, so the kids can enjoy it right when spring starts.

 Planting

• As long as there is no frost in the ground, it is possible to plant deciduous hedges and trees. This also applies to planting hedges.
• Do you have spring bulbs? Take them out of their pots and put them in the ground.
• Brighten up the garden table with a bowl or pot of Pansies: they are hardy and colorful.

Purple Crocuses

Maintenance

• Sprinkle sand on the path and patio to wipe off the green layer in an environmentally friendly way.
• Take a tour of the garden and critically examine what general cleanup work you encounter, such as cleaning out nest boxes, gutters or the greenhouse. You can make it all fresh for spring now.

• Replace rotten posts or fences and install a climbing frame for your climbing plants.
• Treat wooden benches.

• Check if the lawn mower needs servicing.
• If it still freezes heavily in February, put pots of plants in a sheltered, slightly less cold place.

Maintenance of wooden parts in the garden

Care

• Your border needs lime. Do this before the end of winter. Lime not only improves the acidity of the soil, but above all it improves the absorbability of fertilizers for plants. Also, it has an indirect effect on moss in lawn.
• Do you have a compost pile? Sprinkle the compost throughout your garden and give some extra to the roses. They love it. In severe frosts, a mulch layer of leaves, wood chips and compost has an insulating effect for the plant roots.
• If there is still frost, place a cloth over the flowering plants to give them some protection.
• Did it snow heavily? On leafy shrubs, trees and large bushes, branches can break due to the weight of the snow. Therefore, carefully shake the snow off the branches. Do this especially with conifers, boxwood bulbs, hedges, bamboo, leafy trees and shrubs.
• Do you have Mediterranean plants or trees in your garden such as the olive, palm tree or oleander? These often cannot withstand severe frost. If the thermometer indicates -5 or lower, it is time to protect these plants from the cold with a special cover or put a reed mat around them.

A New Zealand plant covered in snow

Pruning

• February is pruning month. Fruit trees such as apples and pears can be trimmed back considerably now. Light frost is not a problem.

• Is there no more chance of frost during the day? At the end of winter you can prune Butterfly bush and Lavender, among others.
• For February/March, put pruning spent winter bloomers on your pruning agenda, such as Winter Jasmine.
• From December to the end of February, you can prune the Leilindes.
• Pollard willows can still be pruned until the end of March.
• Is there a severe frost and/or snow? Your plants have an extra hard time with severe frosts. Don't plague them by pruning them just now. Most smaller garden plants, especially evergreen plants, cannot stand being pruned with frost. Forest plants and deciduous shrubs and trees can take a beating and tolerate pruning in frost better.
• February is a good time to harvest large trees. Ask a professional to do this.

A pruned pollard willow in February

Lawn

• Are there fallen leaves on your turf? Remove this. Work bad and bare spots in the lawn with the prick roller or pitchfork. This will give you better air circulation in the top layer. Walk the lawn as little as possible while there is still frost on the ground.
• Around the end of this month, you can begin your first lawn restoration. Scoop up potholes. Spread soil from molehills across the lawn with a rake or broom.

Weeding

• With the weather open, make your first tour of your borders. Using a trident or hand cultivator, loosen the top layer and remove the weeds, old flower heads and plant debris that you left in place before winter.

A snowdrop in the border

Pond or water dish

• Do you have a decorative stone water dish and severe frost is coming? Put it inside to prevent it from freezing to pieces. Corten steel does not absorb moisture and is therefore frost-resistant.

• A pond with fish? Definitely make a wade, but do so with care. Don't just hit the ice with a hard object like a shovel or hammer, as you will disturb the fish.
• Prevention is always better than cure: if it starts to freeze moderately, put a bunch of straw or reeds in the pond. This will prevent the pond from freezing over completely and the fish will die from the pollutants that can no longer get out.
• If it is still below six degrees during the day, you don't need to feed pond fish yet.
• Sweep away snow from a pond without fish but with aquatic plants so that the aquatic plants get enough light.

Remove fallen leaves from the pond

Kitchen Garden

• February is the month you can start pre-seeding in a greenhouse or indoors.
• If you hadn't turned over the soil in January, now is the time to do so.
• Sprinkle the vegetable garden with lime.
• Enrich the soil with compost.
• Currants and gooseberries often sprout as early as February. You can plant them now, when it's not freezing.

Pre-seeding in trays

For the animals

• Squirrels, birds and hedgehogs can use a hand from us in severe frosts and snow because they find little food, such as insects, on their own. Scatter some peanuts, seeds, kernels, almonds or walnuts in a higher place, such as the garden table.
• You can also add a bowl of shaved ice for thirst.
• Hang nesting boxes in the garden.

Want to see other months' garden calendar returns? Then check out the garden calendar year overview.