Muddy Stilettos


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<p>You may be safely hibernating until things warm up, but your garden definitely isn&#8217;t. With spring less than a month away, and borders starting to wake up, Toby&#8217;s talking daffodils, English roses and scented lavender &#8211; <em>about</em> them, not <em>to</em> them, you understand &#8211; although maybe that&#8217;s one of his top tips! Let&#8217;s find out, shall we?</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-plant-snowdrops-in-the-green">1/ Plant snowdrops in the green</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Untitled-design-14.jpg" alt="Snowdrops" class="wp-image-87507" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Untitled-design-14.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Untitled-design-14-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Untitled-design-14-1000x667.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



<p>Not much flowers now, but these little bulbs are great winter do&#8217;ers, and slowly spread into carpets for free. Unlike most bulbs, they&#8217;re best planted when growing <em>in the gree</em>n under shrubs and hedges where they&#8217;ll have the cool conditions they prefer when died down come summer. Encourage existing plants to spread into carpets, by carefully lifting with a trowel when they finish flowering, gently splitting clumps in half and dotting them around.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2-feed-english-roses">2/ Feed English roses</h2>



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<p>If you want lots of lush blooms this summer, buy a pack of bonemeal (or manure if you have stables locally) and sprinkle or fork it the soil around the base of roses now. It might be still be months until they flower, but feeding nice and early ensures there&#8217;s plenty of food at the roots just when they&#8217;re coming into growth come spring.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-give-lavender-a-haircut">3/ Give lavender a haircut</h2>



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<p>English lavenders, which are looking pretty scraggy now, will bounce back with fresh leaves and flowerbeds if you trim back to the fuzzy growth at the centre of the plants &#8211; just don’t cut into the leafless wood below. Do the same with sage and rosemary. French lavender, which have the little ears on the top of the flower, are best only lightly trimmed to take off last year&#8217;s dead flowerspikes.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-bring-the-garden-indoors">4/ Bring the garden indoors</h2>



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<p>For impact, dainty Tête-à-Tête daffies look much better planted en masse, and the same goes for miniature narcissi in pots. Plant three to five 9cm pots together in a shallow terracotta bowl, cover the soil with moss scraped from the lawn and bring them into a cool room to flower. Likewise, you can force golden-flowered forsythia to bloom early by cutting a few leafless stems once the flowerbeds form this month or early next. Pop them in a vase and watch them unfurl like indoor sunshine.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-5-to-sow-or-not-to-sow">5/ To sow or not to sow?</h2>



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<p>If you&#8217;re keen on raising plants from seed, don&#8217;t be too quick off the mark to sow. Go off too early, and you&#8217;ll just be left with floppy plants worse than cress past its sell-by date. Wait until the end of the month to sow chillis and tender climbers, and March for sweet peas.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-6-watch-the-weather">6/ Watch the weather</h2>



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<p>It&#8217;s been a pretty mild winter so far, but if it does turn cold, stay off the lawn if it&#8217;s frosty as footsteps can kill grass. But if it carries on warming up, perennials will be up and out of the blocks early, meaning it’s time to stock up on the eco wildlife-friendly slug pellets. Early flowering rhododendrons, camellia and azaleas can disappoint by jettisoning their flowerbuds now &#8211; a sign of lack of water when buds were forming last summer, so consider installing a waterbutt, and write yourself a diary note to water if it&#8217;s dry again this summer. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-want-more-green-fingered-tips-from-tobe"><em>Want more green-fingered tips from Tobe?</em></h2>



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<p><em>Tune into his Sunday morning gardening phone-in every Sunday on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p053xrkm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BBC Radio Devon</a>/<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p053xrkm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BBC Sounds</a>, 10am-2pm or catch him on BBC Gardeners&#8217; World. Even better, grab your tickets for&nbsp;<a href="https://tobygardenfest.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Toby’s Garden Festival</a>&nbsp;(above) on Friday 3 and Saturday 4 May 2024 at Powderham Castle, Kenton nr Exeter</em>, <em>where Rachel de Thame and Sue Kent are among the celebrity speakers.</em></p>


Toby Buckland’s gardening tips for February

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