5 important gardening jobs you need to do in February: using these garden hand tools

The short days and cold weather are not conducive to spend time out in the garden digging and pruning. And, why would you during a period of dormancy? But, now is the time of year we need to pull on a wooly jumper and head out doors to tackle of few important jobs that we help our gardens enter spring with much glamour and style. Before you head outdoors, check that have all the garden hand tools and accessories - as well as being clean and fit for purpose! 

February gardening jobs 

Divide snowdrop bulbs once they have finished flowering.

Prune roses

If you didn't get a chance to prune back your roses in autumn, then now is the perfect time to ensure a beautiful display of colour in spring. Prune before new growth starts for healthy, vigorous flowering potential.

There is something quite therapeutic about meticulously pruning a rose plant provided you are armed with a good pair of secateurs.  

After a few years a rose stem will become exhausted and stop producing flowers and so they need to be removed as do any dead, diseased or damaged shoots. Prune about 5mm above a bud and make a clean sloping cut away from an outward facing bud. A new stem will grow from that bud and produce a rose. 

Prune as far back as you can (it feels a bit like tough love cutting away so much of a rose bush but the results are so magnificently rewarding - I have two rose bushes growing in front of our house both of which receive numerous compliments in the summer. It takes a good few hours of careful pruning for a perfect seasonal display). 

Cut-back hardy evergreen hedges

The timing of pruning evergreen shrubs and hedges is critical to their growth and best display of flowers. When to prune evergreen should be marked out on a calendar. In February hardy evergreen that can be pruned include Wisteria,  Buddleia and Hydrangea.

Prepare seed beds for planting and cover with a polythene cloth to warm the soil before planting

Feed your plants 

It is a good time to dig out well matured organic mater from your compost heap and dig it into your flowerbeds for a healthy, nutritional start to the flowering season.

Do a general tidy up

Trim and tidy lawn edges to give an all round neat appearance. Rake-up autumn leaves that have blown into the corners of your patio, across your lawn or around pot plants. Autumnal leaves can be composted to make leaf mulch, which helps soil in flowerbeds retain moisture and is a source of much needed nutrients.

Dig weeds out by their roots in flower beds, plant pots, lawn and paving. If the ground is frozen then leave the job to a warmer day. 

The garden hand tools you will need

• Weed removal tool - Do you look forward to spending time in the garden, but weeding is one job you despise? The Grumpy Gardener knows this so bought an innovative garden hand tool to market to make weeding less of a burden.  The Cultimate weed remover tool is also an all-purpose garden hand tool used to break up hard soil, plant and to create furrows and drills. Use it to effortlessly rake out weeds from the joints in paving and drive edges. It gets right under the weed, pulling it up by the roots. Choose from either a short or long handled Cultimate weeder.

• Serrated edged digging spade - An ingenious multi digging garden tool that every gardener will love! Use it to plant, draw seed troughs and cut through fibrous roots with the serrated blade. It digs through hard ground with ease. It also scoops out twice as much soil or compost than a regular trowel or hand spade. For bulb planting, the curved design with pointed tip and smooth side of the blade cuts effortlessly through the soil to mark out a planting site. The serrated edge readily cuts through troublesome roots, whilst the front of the blade has measurements in mm and inches etched-in for accurate bulb planting and to gauge soil depth.

• Wheelbarrow Booster - designed by a UK landscape gardener to assist with moving garden waste such as leaves, grass, hedge cuttings and bark. It triples the capacity of your wheelbarrow by up to 300%. The wheelbarrow booster saves energy having to make lots of  trips by increasing the height of your wheelbarrow. 

• Swivel ratchet secateurs - has a rotating handle to reduce wrist strain. They are suitable for left or right handed users. It has a 4 ratchet cutting system to make it easier to cut through thicker branches. The safety catch is easily visible and accessible to left and right handed users. The packaging includes user friendly guidelines for the use of the swivel ratchet secateurs in the garden.