Jobs to do this February

1. Early strawberries

   For an extra early crop of tasty strawberries this summer, buy some pot grown plants from the garden centre and grow them on the kitchen windowsill.

2. Pruning wisteria

   Prune any side shoots on wisteria to 5cm (2in) from the main stem. This will tidy up the plant but, more importantly, help it produce more flowers in May.

3. Preparing compost

   Bring bags of compost indoors so that the compost can warm up slightly before you use it for sowing seeds or potting on seedlings and plug plants.

4. Digging the veg plot

   Finish digging over the veg plot so the soil has time to settle down before the main sowing season starts in March. Autumn-sown broad beans may need covering with fleece if the weather turns really cold.

5. Overgrown snowdrops

   Overgrown clumps of snowdrops should be dug up once they’ve finished flowering. Tease apart into small clusters and re-plant at 15cm (6in) spacing, using some fresh compost.

6. Pruning roses

   Prune hybrid tea and floribunda roses by cutting out any dead, damaged, diseased or spindly branches, then open up the centre of the bush by removing any congested or crossing over branches. Finally cut back remaining stems to about 25cm (10in) from the ground.

7. Starting off begonia tubers

   Start begonia tubers growing in trays of moist compost in a warm room or greenhouse. Pot up when the shots are 5cm (2in) long, grow on indoors, and plant into the baskets after the last frosts.

8. Tackling weeds

   Hoe, dig out or spray chickweed and other fast growing weeds that have survived the winter. Left alone, they’ll romp away in spring, flower, set seed and pop up everywhere.

9. Sweet peas

   Grow scented sweet peas for the summer. Sow 3 to 4 seeds per small pot and place in a sheltered spot. Pinch out the tops when seedlings are 7.5cm (3in) high and plant out in late March/early April.