
Everything you need to grow...
Hot off the trowel
Gardens to Gander ​​
The good news about February is snowdrops and more daylight hours. Snowdrops can be seen at the following places.
West Dean Gardens open Mon-Fri 09.30am - 5.00pm.
Sat-Sun 09.00am - 5.00pm
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The National Garden Scheme (NGS)
Look on their website and find a garden near you to visit.
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Insector Clueso!
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The Asian Hornet has arrived in the UK, and hundreds of nests have been destroyed. However, it looks as though they have been the tip of the iceberg. They are avaricious insects that target most of our pollinators.
Our honey bees are at serious risk of their hives being invaded and the colonies being wiped out. These predators are smaller than the European Hornet, which is not a threat. The Asian Hornet can be identified by its yellow leg ends and a wide orange band towards the rear of its abdomen.
If you see one, please report it using the iPhone and Android ‘Asian Hornet Watch’ app. Alternatively, email: alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk
please include a photo if you can do so safely.
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Weeders Digest
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The Climate Change Garden by Sally Morgan and Kim Stoddart
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The RHS have recommended a book called The Climate Change Garden by Sally Morgan and Kim Stoddart. After our speaker last month gave a talk on gardening in the 21st century, this booked seemed very appropriate. It is an insight into problems gardeners could potentially face in our changing climate. Learn how to start creating a resilient garden for the future now to give it a better chance of survival. Guidance includes improving your soil, creating a resilient veggie patch and planting a climate change

Top gardening jobs for February ​
SPRING IS IN SIGHT! - This month there are signs of the approaching spring, with bulbs appearing and wildlife waking up as days lengthen and temperatures increase. There’s plenty to do indoors this month to prepare for the season ahead. Outdoors as gardens come to life again, it’s time to prune certain shrubs and climbers such as wisteria.​
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1. . Prepare vegetable seed beds and sow some vegetables under cover.
2. Chit potato tubers.
3. Protect blossom on apricots, nectarines and peaches.
4. Net fruit and vegetable crops to keep the birds off.
5. Prune winter-flowering shrubs that have finished flowering.
6. .Divide bulbs such as snowdrops and plants those that need
planting ‘in the green’.​
7. Prune wisteria.
8. Renovate overgrown hedges with pruning.
9. Prune conservatory climbers such as bourgainvillea.
10. At the end of the month, start cutting back to the ground deciduous ornamental grasses and prairie planting to allow new growth to come through.
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Musings
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‘Whilst it is February, one can taste the full joys of anticipation.
Spring stands at the gate with her finger on the latch'.
Patience Strong
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‘In February there is everything to hope for and nothing to regret’
Patience Strong
‘February, a form pale-ventured, wildly fair. One of the North Wind’s daughters with icicles in her hair’
Edgar Fawcett
‘February is even better, though, because it lets us study why so many of those resolutions are broken’
Send him Mullainathan
‘If January is the month of change, February is the month of
lasting change. January is for dreamers....February is for doers’
Marc Parent
‘Late February days; and now, at last, might you have thought
that winter’s woe was past; so fair the sky was and so soft the
air’
William Morris
‘In February, nature reminds us that even in the coldest moments,
beauty can still flouris'
Gabriela Aleman
‘Late February, and the air’s so balmy snowdrops and crocuses
might be fooled into early blooming’
Gail Mazur
And finally...
‘Even though February is the shortest month of the year, sometimes it can seem the longest’
J D Robb
