y the end of February, the sun will rise before 7am for the first time this year and we will have gained more than an hour of morning light.
It’s not just us who benefit from the extra dose of sunshine — our plants do, too. The longer days are joined by a gradual rise in temperature that means London often experiences spring a month earlier than other parts of the country.
It’s tempting to do a big garden clean-up about now but lazy gardeners will be gratified to hear that a total blitz isn’t actually the best approach.
It’s the time to start cutting back any of last year’s remaining foliage from herbaceous perennials (plants and grasses that die back and then re-grow each year) before their new growth starts to emerge.
Cut the old stems back as close to ground level as possible. If you find you’re cutting through green woody stems, stop. Chances are it’s not a herbaceous perennial at all, and requires a different approach.
A clean garden is a dead garden
It might look good after you have cleared away all the leaves and dead stems that appear in a garden over…
