February.
All weeds should be destroyed this month, both in the path and the edging, as well as in the border. If you have Dandelions or Hemlock, cut their heads off, and cover the remains with common salt. Plantains and most other weeds may be killed in time in this way.
Perhaps you remember that line in Tennyson about Geraint glancing at Enid ‘as careful robins eye the delver’s toil.’ You are sure to think of it this month when you begin to fork over your garden, for wherever you turn the soil there you will see a robin with its red breast and bright eyes looking for food. Never drive one away, for they eat wood-lice, grubs, and worms, but do no harm to plants. A nice big toad—not a frog, but a rough, grey toad—is a most desirable friend, too, as he will eat ants, wood-lice, and flies. Ants are sometimes most mischievous in a garden. They do not eat plants, but they eat certain aphides they find on the roots. Anyhow, they will kill your pet plant if they are so inclined. You see it turn yellow and die, and when you take it up you find its roots gnawed away. We do not pretend that this is a scientific description of what happens, but only one we can relate out of our own sad experience. We once built a wall with great care, meaning to grow many beautiful rock plants on it. We could not understand why they flourished for a time, and then died. Then we found the ants and tried to kill them in various horrid ways that made us feel like inquisitors. We won’t harrow you with them, because they were not only cruel, but useless. At last we asked one of the best gardeners we knew what he did when one of his plants was attacked by ants, and he said he only knew of one thing to do, and that was to remove the plant.
Lady-birds, as well as birds and toads, are friends in your garden, as they eat aphides—what the little girl in one of Anstey’s stories calls ‘those horrid little green atheists.’ Sparrows you must keep away this month with black cotton amongst your Crocuses if you want to see the flowers whole and upright. When you find their yellow petals strewn on the ground, you will know that the mischievous birds have been at them. In mild springs some of the herbaceous plants begin to push up young leaves this month. The Phloxes are amongst the earliest. Look out for slugs, or they will devour the early shoots of many plants, often so greedily that the plant cannot recover.
Japanese Lilies are now arriving, and should be planted in peat and sand. The sand keeps off slugs and attracts moisture. They should have a thick dressing of manure on the top to keep out frost.
Sweet-peas may be sown this month without harm, but it is too early for your other seeds, as long as you depend on an outdoor garden. The impatient, inexperienced gardener reaps nothing but failure when he sows too early. If you are lucky enough to have a frame, you will find it most useful, even though the elaborate, costly hot-beds described in gardening books are beyond your reach. A simple hot-bed can be made with some manure, which must be put in the frame and turned over two or three times with a garden fork. It is then spread out flat, and covered with good garden soil. You can either sow your seeds in this soil or put your seed-boxes on it a few days after it is made. If a hot-bed cannot be made you can fill your frame with cinders, and place your seed-boxes on them. The boxes must be lifted in some way, so as to be near the glass, or the seedlings would grow spindly. On warm days you must open your frame and let in air, or the soil will turn sour and mossy. In showery weather let in rain, and in a drought water judiciously. The four elementary things to remember about seeds grown in a frame are: they must be raised in some way, so as to be near the glass; they must have air to keep the soil healthy; they must be shaded from strong sunshine; and they must be moist, but not too moist. You do not want them either to be withered by drought or smothered by moss.