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Frog Blog...

February 2011

February is a really busy month in the garden.
Firstly, there is a rush to finish planting all the trees, shrubs and climbers that didn't get done in December and January. Then, there is always a lot of pruning to do.
We always prune our roses in February, because that's the very best time to start new growth from the dormant buds. When you are pruning a rose, remember that every time you make a cut, the dormant bud on the stem below your cut will immediately get a chemical signal that it has suddenly become the leading bud, and it will start to grow into a new shoot.
If you make your cuts and start this new growth too early in the winter, the new shoots can be quite large and tender when there is still a danger of hard frost.
We find that cuts made in February start the dormant buds growing at just the right moment to produce big new flowering shoots in April, when the danger of hard frosts is past.
Another job we always try to do in February is scarifying and reseeding lawns.
Lawn mosses are short day plants, which means they are stimulated to grow fastest when nights are long and days short, i.e. in the winter.
Lawn grass of course grows most slowly at this time, so the moss quickly starts to take over the lawn. This moss can be removed by "scarifying" the lawn with a springy wire lawn rake, or using a scarifying machine. After the lawn has been scarified, the resulting bare patches can then be seeded with grass seed, which is in turn top dressed with a sand and compost mixture to keep it moist and protect it from the sharp eyes of hungry birds.
When grass seed is sown in February, although germination and growth can be slow, it is safe from drying out, which is the worst thing that can happen to a newly-seeded lawn. By the time the days lengthen, and some warm sunshine first arrives in April, a February-seeded lawn is usually already nicely established and ready to grow quickly in the April sunshine.

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Small Birds vs Bigger Bird
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