Sowing in February
As school zone lights blink again, think of them as a reminder to sow your Autumn/ Winter garden. A small amount of time sowing seeds in the next two weeks can produce a diversity of nutrient dense, tasty vegetables throughout mid Autumn and Winter. In addition, if you have room in your cut flower garden and want to push your bouquet harvest into April and May, it is not too late!
While brassicas love the warmth of late summer to grow and then produce their crop in the coolness of autumn, flowers like zinnias and cosmos will actually flower quicker at this time of the year due to the warmth and the days growing shorter - they sense their season for setting seed is decreasing and so they get on with the business of flowering!
Keep yourself in lettuce by continuing to sow those varieties that thrive in the heat - and extend your range with heading varieties that appreciate the shorter days of March
We have outlined our February sowing and growing plan below:
Autumn Brassicas
Keep sowing your Autumn brassicas! You will be transplanting these in late February to harvest in early April - July!
‘PIRACICABA’ Broccoli offers an amazing harvest of cut and come again small headed, sweet stems and it copes with heat as well as cool climates!
‘KALIBOS’ Cabbage is so very sweet and we absolutely love the colour in our winter garden
‘SHANGHAI GREEN’ Bok Choy is a tight headed, thick white ribbed variety that can be harvested as a mini or full size head.
KALE a wonderful salad addition, great in soups and toast it for snacking or as a topping!!
Lettuce
Sow in February for late March - April harvest. We bring back a few spring favourites - which we relish knowing that we will have a winter of gem lettuces
SPRING LETTUCES THAT RETURN IN EARLY AUTUMN
Reine de Glace is an heirloom treasure! Fresh, mineral, juicy - it is a stunner that enjoys heading as the days get shorter!
Carmona and Pirat butter lettuces reappear with the daylight growing shorter. Both have good bolt resistance.
In mid/late February, we bring back Head Cardinal . We love to enjoy these before a winter of gem lettuces!
SUMMER LETTUCES THAT CONTINUE STRONG
Icebergs like Crispino and Salinas 88 cope with summer heat and make for a juicy, crunchy salad, sandwich and hamburger!
Colorful crisphead lettuces such as Joker, Jester and Rosencrantz also thrive in summer heat.
Gem/Romaine Lettuces - Eruption, Fawn, Double Density, Pandero and Sweetheart Gems are great choices for quick to mature lettuces. Great raw and grilled, gems love the heat (remaining sweet and juicy), grow quickly and can fit in to all the empty little spots of the garden adding colour. We sow every two weeks to keep a constant supply for salads and grilling!
Romaines like Jadeite, Jericho and Flashy Troutback will stay sweet and succulent through the heat offering great full sized heads for late summer salads.
There are tricks to growing sweet summer lettuces. Read about them here
Celery
We sow our late Autumn and Winter supply of celery this week
Herbs
Coriander does bolt quickly throughout summer so we successively sow it every two weeks to keep up the supply.
Dill is not only a favorite in potato salad, we love it in our cut flower bouquets. We sow it every six weeks to keep a constant supply
Parsley sown now will provide you leaves throughout winter
Roots
Carrots - to keep a constant supply, we sow carrots ever 3 weeks from now through March!
Beetroot - we continue sowing these every month
Snow Peas and Beans
We bring snow peas back sowing this month. ‘Beauregard’ snow peas are an amazing variety bred by Michael Mazorek. They are purple and keep their colour even when cooked! Keep them well watered to help them grow through the heat
We also sow our last beans this month and get excited to harvest both snow peas and beans in April
Other “Greens”
Mizuna and Rocket - for a constant supply, sow every two weeks
Silverbeet - now is the time to refresh your silverbeet and ensure you have it to harvest throughout winter
Spinach - especially if a cooler late summer is forecasted, bring english spinach back into your garden
Flowers
Summer’s heat, humidity, pest, disease and weeds can take their toll on the cut flowers you sowed in spring. There are many flowers that you can sow in the first week of February and harvest in late March - Mid May, depending on when your first frost is and the amount of protection you offer.
Lynn Byczynski, flower farmer, market grower and founding editor of Growing for Market suggests, “The wise flower grower will plant as late as 90 days before the expected first frost - or even later, if the gambling type. Many years, frost will be several weeks later than the average, and it pays to have flowers to sell as long as possible.”
Depemding on your climate, you may be able to squeeze in another planting of Cosmos and Zinnia!
Edible flowers alyssum, calendula and nasturtium work well now as they love the coolness coming
Successive plantings of fillers such as nigella, cress and mignonette
Take advantage of our SEED COLLECTIONS which offer a 20% savings over buying individual packets.
PLEASE NOTE - These recommendations are completely based on our 18 years of growing on this patch in Southern Victoria, Australia.