Flowers & Crops to Plant in February

One of the great things about moving into a brand new home is that your garden will be a blank canvas ready for you to make your mark. You can make it as maintenance friendly as you like – or perhaps you have green fingers and love nothing more than tending to a garden and growing your own fruit and veg.

February is a great time to sow seeds for early crops and summer blooms so you can enjoy your outside space in the coming months. If you have a small terrace, balcony or even just a space at your front door you can still plant some flowers to bloom to brighten up your home for spring and summer.

Although this month can be a cold, wet month with the chance of snow, it’s still a great time to plant seeds and bulbs.

Crops

City centre or out in the country, planting crops is a great way to get the children involved and help them to become excited about eating food they have grown themselves. Certain types of radish, lettuce and salad onions can be sewn this month – kept covered – by sewing them thinly and covering with dry soil. This will produce lovely salad leaves relatively quickly so long as they are protected from frost and snow. Shallots and garlic can also be planted this month – plant them around 15cm apart and 5cm deep.

Peas can be planted in plastic guttering with holes drilled in the bottom – sow them around 5cm apart and 2.5cm deep, water well and place on a windowsill or porch and when you see the leaves plant them outside.

If you want to help the bees, consider some bee-friendly annuals like Calendula and Borage. You can also consider planting cornflowers. Fill trays with seed-sowing compost to within a quarter of an inch from the top – make sure you water the soil well and distribute the seeds thinly over the surface, covering them lightly with more compost.

There are also some hardy crops that can be sown outside, but you’ll need to protect them with a fleece on cold nights! Try Kale, carrots, parsnips and turnips.

Love Lilies?

Lilies are loved by many and always a popular choice when buying cut flowers. They look and smell beautiful and can be planted any time from autumn to spring in rich, well drained soil. They are also suitable for containers which can be placed wherever you want to create a vibrant display in the summer months.