February Garden Guide

Mediterranean Climate

Veggies and flowers to plant this month

Veggies: Asian greens, beetroot, beans (S), carrots (S), fennel, horseradish, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, potato, radish, rocket, squash (A), swede, silverbeet, tomato (A), turnip, watercress, zucchini (A). (S = seed, A = advanced seedlings)

Flowers: Alyssum, aquilegia, cornflower, cosmos, foxglove, marigold, petunia (a solanum so observe crop rotation as per tomato and relatives), wallflower.

(S = seed, A = advanced seedlings)

What seeds to get going in preparation for seedlings this month (combined with the above?)

Celery, Asian greens, beetroot, cabbage, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, endive, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, onions, radish, silverbeet, swede, turnip, rocket, watercress.

What to harvest, store and preserve this month

Peaches (bottled), plums (jam and sauce), nectarines (chutney), beans (dried), potatoes and sweet potatoes (store in dark cupboard), grapes (dry for sultanas or make wine), tomatoes (passata, sundried tomatoes), seed of parsley, lettuces, carrots and coriander.

Garden jobs this month

Summer prune fruit trees after harvest, give a deep soaking and mulch with lucerne. Top up mulch in the garden generally (preferably after rain if we get any), give low-water areas an occasional deep soak if there has been no rain for a long time. Feed citrus and roses. Dead-head flowers and trim perennials like geraniums. Adjust shade as needed.

Featured Permaculture Principle: Catch & Store Energy

(Read more about this principle here.)

For our family this is typified by bottling fruits, making jam, sauce and chutney, drying grapes, composting grape prunings, using reed cuttings for experimental weaving, collecting pine cones and saving sticks as kindling for the wood oven and as garden stakes.