What to plant in February

Three to plant in February

Cold soil is no obstacle to any of these — two go straight in the ground, one starts on a bright windowsill.

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  Foolproof

  Rhubarb 'Timperley Early'

  Rheum × hybridum

  Plant a crown now with the bud just at soil level. Resist pulling any stems in year one and it will feed you every spring for twenty years — genuinely the least work for the most return.

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  Scent

  Sweet pea 'Matucana'

  Lathyrus odoratus

  Sow under cover in deep pots this month and pinch the tips at four leaves. February-sown sweet peas flower weeks earlier and far more heavily than anything sown in spring.

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  Statement

  Dogwood 'Sibirica'

  Cornus alba

  Lacquer-red winter stems that glow against a low sun. Cut a third of the stems to the ground each February — the colour is only ever on new wood.

Garden ideas to nick this month

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  Egg box, cool windowsill

  Chit the first potatoes

  Stand seed potatoes eyes-up in an old egg box somewhere bright and frost-free. Short, stubby green shoots by late March mean an earlier, heavier crop — long white ones mean it was too dark.

• 

  The hungriest month

  Feed the birds properly

  Natural food is at its lowest right now, just as birds start pairing up. Fat balls and sunflower hearts through February buy you a garden full of aphid-eaters by May — the cheapest pest control there is.

A garden to visit

Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire

The winter garden at its peak

Drifts of snowdrops running under white-stemmed birches, with witch hazel scenting the whole path. February is the one month this garden was designed for, and it knows it.