February is a month with two faces. Outside it can still freeze hard, the frost crunches underfoot in the morning, and overnight you sometimes get snow. Indoors, though, the new season is already underway: the first seed trays are lined up on the windowsill, and every day the light stretches a little longer. Start now and by spring you'll have sturdy, well-rooted young plants instead of pricey trays from the garden centre.
Let's work through the jobs one by one. February covers roughly CW 6 to 9.
The seed-starting begins
Now it's the turn of the slow starters, the ones that need a long growing season: tomatoes, peppers, chillies, aubergine and physalis. Heat-lovers that they are, they germinate best at around 22 to 24 degrees in a bright spot.
Toward the end of the month, celery, early lettuce and the first brassicas follow. Light stays the key thing: raised too dark, the seedlings turn leggy and pale. A south-facing window helps, but in February a grow light is worth its weight in gold.
As soon as the seedlings show their first pair of true leaves after the two rounded seed leaves, it's time to prick them out, meaning you move each one into its own pot. It sounds trickier than it is.
Ease them out gently
Lift the seedlings out of the compost with a dibber or a teaspoon. Only ever hold them by a seed leaf, never by the delicate stem.
Trim the root
Pinch the tip off the main root with your fingernail. That nudges the plant into making lots of fine side roots.
Plant deeper
Set each seedling on its own in a small pot of low-nutrient seed compost, and with tomatoes go right up to just below the seed leaves. They'll grow extra roots along the stem.
Water in and cool them down
Water in gently, then keep them a few degrees cooler and bright. That's how you get stocky, strong plants instead of tall, soft ones.
Chitting early potatoes
If you want to dig your own first potatoes come summer, now's when you lay the groundwork. From mid to late February, bring your seed potatoes out of dark storage and stand them in the light.
Stand the tubers with most of their eyes facing up in an egg box or a shallow tray, somewhere bright and cool at around 10 to 15 degrees. In three to four weeks they'll form short, sturdy green shoots. Those are exactly what you want. Long, pale shoots tell you it's too warm and too dark. Planted out already chitted, the potatoes will be ready two to three weeks earlier.
February doesn't sow a harvest, it sows a head start. What's on your windowsill now decides how the summer goes.
The first seeds can go outside
Once the soil has dried out a bit and is no longer frozen, the outdoor sowing season gets cautiously going in milder spots. Tough crops shrug off the cold surprisingly well. Broad beans, also known as fava beans, germinate from around five degrees and take light frost in their stride. Peas follow soon after. Under a layer of fleece or in a cold frame you can also chance radishes, spinach and the first carrots, and onion sets and garlic can go in the ground too.
Pruning berry bushes and fruit
While the bushes are still bare, you can see their framework clearly and pruning comes easy. Redcurrants and gooseberries get thinned out: the oldest, dark stems come out at ground level, and a few strong young ones stay. That keeps the bush open and healthy, and it carries the fattest berries on young wood.
Winter pruning on apple and pear is still fine to finish off now, on a dry, frost-free day. Stone fruit, on the other hand, waits for summer.
The ornamental garden wakes up
Among the last patches of snow, snowdrops and winter aconites are flowering now, and the first crocuses are pushing through. Toward the end of the month, just before new growth appears, cut the ornamental grasses and spent perennial stems you left standing right back to the ground. Until now they've sheltered overwintering insects and given the beds some structure. With rose pruning, though, you're better off waiting until the forsythia flowers, the reliable indicator shrub for it.
Your February in brief
- Start indoorsSow tomatoes, peppers, chillies and aubergine on a bright windowsill, and prick out the seedlings.
- Chit potatoesStand seed potatoes somewhere bright and cool until short green shoots appear.
- First direct sowingBroad beans and peas outside, radishes and spinach under fleece.
- Prune berriesThin out currants and gooseberries, cut autumn raspberries to the ground.
- ProtectWarm young sowings with fleece, and keep late frost in mind.
- Ornamental gardenCut back grasses and perennials before new growth starts.
Häufige Fragen
Do you really need a grow light for seed-starting in February?
For the early-sown heat-lovers like peppers and chillies, it's well worth it. February light is still weak and short, and without extra light the seedlings easily go leggy. No lamp? Then you're better off sowing these crops in March instead.
Isn't it too early to be sowing outside already?
For most crops, yes. But broad beans and peas are tough customers and germinate at low temperatures. All that matters is that the soil has dried out and isn't frozen. A layer of fleece adds a bit of extra insurance.
Why should I chit potatoes at all?
Chitted tubers get going the moment you plant them and are ready two to three weeks earlier. With early potatoes especially, that's the difference between an early harvest and a very early one.
Your February at a glance
February is the month of small beginnings. A lot of it happens on a few centimetres of windowsill, and yet you're already carrying the whole summer inside you. Take your time; spring comes on its own, and the strongest young plants are rarely the earliest sown, but the ones raised patiently and in good light.
In Gartenkern you keep track of what you sowed and when, and set yourself reminders for pricking out and hardening off. Next year you'll know exactly which tomato 'Berner Rose' germinated reliably and when your early potatoes were ready. So with every February, your experience grows too.
