BBC Gardeners' World February 2022

The stirring of life in the garden is quietly under way once more – so welcome after midwinter, bursting with promise. The birds seem to sense it first, irrepressibly jaunty as the days expand and they flit with purpose from hedges to feeders. It’s a visible sign of the cycle beginning again and every bird call is urging us into spring – bring it on! Dig deeper, though, and there are worrying signs that some birds are not reappearing in our gardens, as they once did. It’s not just birds: butterflies have had an even more torrid year, with sightings for our annual wildlife review plummeting. With species at risk, can this downward spiral ever be halted? Discover the results of our study, from page 58, where our Wildlife Editor Kate Bradbury…

Listen out… for our brand new podcast series on great ways to garden more sustainably this year, with Arit Anderson. See GardenersWorld.com/podcast Learn… how to plant fruit trees, perennials and more, the reliable and economic way with our Essentials bareroot planting class, online on 8 February. It’s £8 for this 30-minute class plus Q&A – see GardenersWorld.com/offers/travel-and-events Create… a great-value, highimpact garden with our 132-page special edition, Your Garden from Seed – a full guide to the seedsowing year. Order now for just £7.99 (+P&P), at magsdirect.co.uk/YGFS22 Explore… some of the UK’s finest coastal gardens on our deluxe cruise, this September. This 12-night trip includes the Isles of Scilly, the Hebrides and Orkney. GardenersWorld.com/british-cruise Keep up to date with us at FACEBOOK @GWmagazine INSTAGRAM @gardenersworldmag TWITTER @GWmag PINTEREST @GWmag Looking to get in touch? Turn to page 138…

“Though February is short, it is filled with lots of love and sweet surprises”Charmaine J Forde Dreary, dull, dismal, depressing, drizzly, defeating and dreich. I don’t know why there are so many words beginning with D that so expressively describe the weather at this time of year. Perhaps when the letters of the alphabet were milling around waiting to be sorted into some sort of language, the letter D did something unmannerly enough to seriously upset the lexicographical gods. Doleful, dim, dingy, desolate, drab, despondent and disconsolate. I am pretty sure that February would be less disgruntling if we focused on B words like beautiful, balmy, beguiling, bonny, brilliant, bewitching and bonzer. STAR OF THE MONTH Viola ‘Apricot Antique’ I don’t know whether you have noticed, but some violas look like furiously moustachioed bandits –…

Hamamelis Many of us will struggle to fit hamamelis into a small garden. We love the colour and that it comes in winter, we love the fragrance and we love the buttery or fiery autumn foliage. But their branches can spread widely – as they mature, they can take up a lot of space and may end up wider than high. At Great Dixter, Christopher Lloyd used to lop flowering branches off his hamamelis in full flower and arrange them in the house in a huge jug. But, of course, he had enough plants in enough space for the branches not to be missed. In a small garden, we can look at the situation in one of four ways. We can say: “The colour is wonderful, let’s just go with it however…

You have a new garden. It is modest but no smaller than most. You had access to a garden during the lockdown months and, especially in that glorious spring two years ago, the garden was a godsend. You didn’t so much get the bug as saw the possibilities. This was something that you could do, would bring pleasure and a palpable sense of wellbeing. Now you can make your own paradise exactly as you want it. But here you are, faced with a February plot, as you watch the garden dissolve beyond the rain hammering onto the windows, and it’s almost entirely devoid of all the things that got you interested in gardening in the first place. So, take it from me – the most important horticultural job lining up…

HOT TOPIC Greening up our act You have published a lot of articles and comments about how important gardeners can be in mitigating against climate change and the part we can play in sustainability. But I have seen nothing about how we can reduce waste by showing a greater value for the plants we grow, in fact it appears the reverse is advocated. I only recently read that chilli plants are perennials if looked after well – prior to this I had been throwing them away in autumn and buying new plants each spring. Similarly, tulip bulbs are often treated as annuals, as it’s easier than lifting, storing, replanting and feeding them to get another year of flowers. And how many poinsettias are discarded after Christmas as it’s a bit tricky to…