What to do in the garden in February:

There are enough bright sunshiny days to get outside, just for a while, to admire the spring bulbs and put the first seeds in. It may be early - but it's definitely spring at last!

General tasks:

• Float a football on the pond to keep a small area free from ice so fish and other creatures can breathe and plants stay healthy.
• Invest in a shredder to turn woody early spring prunings into chips small enough to go on the compost.

Ornamental garden:

• Prune overgrown evergreens removing overcrowded or badly-placed shoots, feeding and mulching well afterwards.
• Trim heathers as soon as they finish flowering, shearing back old flowers to just below the base of the flower stems.
• Prune late-flowering clematis cutting down all growth to about 45cm, always pruning back to just above a healthy bud.

Kitchen garden:

• Cover seed beds with cloches a couple of weeks before sowing to keep the soil dry enough to work and warm it up a little.
• Sow peas in guttering spaced about 2cm apart for an instant row you can just slide into place in the garden.
• Plant shallots in a sunny spot, spacing 15cm apart and sinking them into the soil till just the tips of the bulbs show above ground.