InTouch Magazine Articles Archive

Issue 15, February 2008

Gardening This Month

By Patricia Jordan. Author of "The Cyprus Garden" and "The Potted Garden"

There are lots of basic gardening jobs to be done in February so that the rest of the gardening year will run smoothly. If the weather is at all bright and sunny then get out there and start in on some of them.

You may have pruned your prunus trees last month but this month you need to check your citrus trees. I know they may still have lots of fruit on them but you can avoid those branches and start on those that have already cropped. Eventually when you have picked all the fruit, go back and finish off the job.
The same principles apply to whichever trees you are pruning. The whole idea is to keep the tree in shape and at a height that you can crop the fruit and cut out any dead or diseased branches. For this job you will need long-handled loppers, secateurs and a pruning saw. Do clean the blades of all of them after working on each tree. Diseases can be spread so easily if you don’t. I find scrubbing them with the rough side of a Scotchbrite pad helps to get rid of any residue left on the blades. If you are able to, burn the twigs and branches safely. The resultant wood ash is invaluable in the garden and compost heap.
Most of the fruit trees are fed again this month with 20.0.0. The dosage is three mugfuls of fertiliser for large trees and one mugful for small trees scattered around the base of the tree. A mugful equates to about 300 gms. If there is no rain then you will need to water in the fertiliser but hopefully we will have copious amounts or we will be in dire trouble during the coming months. Once pomegranates have settled in they will probably not need feeding again and loquats don’t need any feeding at all, although you can thin out some of the fruits this month to ensure large fruit later on. If you have pot-grown fruit trees then give them a feed of Phostrogen, which is available in most garden centres. The instructions are on the label.

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