February: The Last of Winter’s Windows

By February, the garden feels poised between stillness and the first stirrings of growth. It’s your final chance for the jobs that only work in cold months — the kind that, once done, quietly reward you for years.

🛠 Jobs this month (low-effort focus)

• Plant bare-root trees and shrubs. This is the last good window before spring. Apples, pears, currants, and unusual edibles like juneberries all settle in best when planted before they begin to break bud.

• Finish apple and pear pruning. Keep it simple: open the canopy and remove crossing branches. (The Apple Tree Care Guide covers the details if you’d like a step-by-step.)

• Force rhubarb. Cover a crown with a tall bucket or terracotta forcer to get those tender pink stems a little earlier — a family favourite that looks great, tastes better, and comes back year after year.

• Plan from indoors. Rough sketches now make spring planting easier. (Create an Accurate Garden Plan helps if you want a digital blueprint with measurements and costs).

🌿 Plant spotlight: Honeyberry (Lonicera caerulea)

Honeyberries are a joyfully odd crop. Their blue-green leaves catch winter light, often sparkling with beads of water after rain, and the fruit is hidden safely under foliage where birds rarely notice it. Depending on variety, the berries can look like stubby little sausages — unusual, but delicious.

Best of all, honeyberries fruit earlier than almost anything else in the garden. They’re reliable, hardy, and unfussy — exactly the kind of plant that earns its keep without fuss.

🪴 A note from my garden

In February, mine feels hushed but hopeful. If it's not frozen the soil is soft with winter rain, bare-root trees are settling quietly, and the first hints of rhubarb are nosing through the mulch. It’s not grand or tidy, but it’s full of promise. That’s the beauty of these gardens: they carry themselves through the quiet months and ask very little of you.

📖 If you want a hand

• Apple Tree Care Guide → pruning made simple.

• Dream Garden Workbook → plan your ideas while the weather keeps you inside.

• Create an Accurate Garden Plan → measure, map, and cost your space digitally.
  👉 Browse all freebies & courses here

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Here’s to a hopeful February,
Mike
Garden Footprint — real gardens that give more than they take