Planting Guides - month by month - follow these proven tips  

 

FEBRUARY

 

Nurture your soil

Prepare plot for Autumn planting - collect compost materials of veggies and sawdust and rotate in tumbler to build up good humus and nitrogen levels for
leaf veggies. Sieve compost for seed raising trays. Collect straw for mulch to insulate soil. Keep worm farms fed and shaded. Fertilise citrus around drip line. Fortnightly liquid manure on leaf veggies.

 

Plant care

Direct sow: Leaf – lettuce, silver beet, spinach.

Cucurbit – cucumber, Legumes – beans.

Root – beetroot, carrots, parsnip, radish.
Allium – onions, shallots
Plant seedlings: Allium – leeks Leaf – lettuce, silver beet, spinach

 

Maintenance

Dead head perennial herbs.  Strike tip cuttings of perennials and herbs lemon verbena, wormwood, rosemary and sage. Spray powdery–mildew outbreaks on pumpkins and cucumbers with a milk spray. Lift cucurbits off the ground with straw or onto pieces of wood or terra cotta tiles. Water grape vine deeply. Keep water up to corn and squash family. Water passionfruit twice weekly to increase fruit size and feed monthly with liquid fertiliser. Water roots not leaves. Continue training new growth and remove rootstock suckers from grafted plants. Remove all fallen fruit from tomatoes and below fruit trees Remove finished plants such as beans, corn, squash and zucchini Tie tomatoes to stakes and spray to deter fruit fly. Watch for cabbage white butterfly on all brassicas.

 

Harvest

Artichokes, aubergine, beans, beetroot, capsicum, carrots, chilli, corn,

cucumbers, lettuce, melons, parsnip, pumpkin and tendrils, rocket, rockmelon, shallots, silverbeet, spinach, squash, tomatoes, zucchini Herbs basil, garlic chives, lemongrass, mint, sage, tarragon, vietnamese mint Leaves- curry tree, kaffir lime, lemon myrtle