Johannesburg - This month is a great time to take stock of your garden. Slowly walk around the garden with a pencil and notebook. Ask yourself: Has my colour planting been successful? Are perennials flowering as well as they should?
Also ask: Are there any overgrown shrubs blocking the light from smaller plants? Should I be adding wildlife-friendly indigenous plants to the garden? Should I remove that invasive weed (highly likely to be bugweed) flourishing in a protected corner of my garden? Are the roses looking well?
Between now and autumn there is a great deal to be accomplished. It’s a time to water, feed, remove dead heads and evaluate the success of your planting schemes. What should you be doing in the garden Consider these tips:
* February is a great time to sow broccoli. Sow one of the two traditional varieties. “Green Valiant is the easiest to grow and most widely adapted, with Premium Crop being a close second,” says vegetable expert Bill Kerr.
* February and March are the best time to sow cauliflower seed in the kitchen garden. Certain varieties take longer than others to mature. By sowing an early-maturing variety (Extra Early Six Weeks or Snowball) with a late-maturing variety (Snowcap), you will be able to harvest cauliflower well into the spring. Snowball will generally take three to four months to mature from the date of sowing. Extra Early Six Weeks will take about three months and Snowcap will mature just after winter regardless of planting time.
* Now is the time to sow winter-flowering annuals, such as the fairy primrose, into protected trays in a shady area. Seeds that have been sown in February can be transplanted into the garden in autumn or as soon as they are sturdy seedlings.
* There are two methods for sowing seed – directly into prepared garden beds or into a seedling tray. Plants with larger seeds can be sown directly into a sunny prepared bed. Try gaillardia’s (blanket flowers), helichrysum (everlastings), linaria, clarkia, carnations, larkspur, and lupins. Sweetpeas can be sown into a sunny bed from the end of February, but wait until the end of March to sow the Namaqualand daisies.
* Varieties with small seed are more successfully planted into seedling trays filled with seedling soil, peat, or a good potting soil and later transplanted into the garden. For a sunny flower bed, consider sowing calendulas, nemesia, Iceland poppies, schizanthus, violas, pansies, snapdragons and Virginian stocks.
* February is also the month to sow the seed of asters, Canterbury bells, cornflower, dianthus, foxglove, candytuft, feverfew, shirley poppies, phlox, gloriosa daisies, verbascum, and verbena.
* The heat is on. With temperatures hovering in the high 20s, it’s time to become a water-wise gardener. Make sure that your soil is protected by spreading a layer of mulch (at least 5cm thick) across flower beds. Use compost, bark chips or pine needles.
* Trim off the lower branches of some trees in order to let in light for shade-loving plants that grow beneath. Dry, dark shade encourages little plant growth.
* Trim creepers that look over-grown and are not in flower or coming into flower with a pair of sharp and sterile clippers.
* The first six weeks of the year are regarded as a critical time for roses. Although it’s a period of semi-dormancy, buds for the autumn flush will be developing. Time spent on your roses this weekend will provide you with a magnificent flush of autumn blooms. Give each rose bush a handful of granules (Wonder for Roses or 5:1:5) and water thoroughly after application. Digging around the roots of roses is fatal in midsummer.
Tidy up the bushes by removing unproductive growth. Remove old hips or dead buds.
* Perk up your lawn. Sprinkle granular fertiliser (Wonder Lawn or 3:2:1 (28) SR slow release) across your lawn at the rate of 45g/m2.
* Camellia buds begin to form for a winter bloom around this time. Water each camellia deeply once a week. To prevent the roots drying out, place a 4cm to 5cm layer of mulch to conserve moisture.
* Pull out the dead leaves of the inca lily by giving stems a gentle tug that dislodges the entire stem from the ground.
* Although the liliums have finished flowering, continue to feed them so that the bulbs can build up food to produce healthy flowers next season. A tablespoon of 3:1:5 dissolved in 5 litres of water applied to the root area will do the job.
GENERAL GARDENING TIPS
* Very few soils are perfect, so it makes sense to spend a generous amount of your gardening allowance on compost and fertiliser.
* The summer-flowering perennial gaura (Gaura lindheimeri) requires full sun, ordinary garden soil and little water once established. Its butterfly-like blooms in white and shades of pink are held on tall, thin stems adding lightness in a border. Roots are easily damaged, so only divide when necessary.
* Marguerite daisies (argyranthemum) add colour to containers and mix well with annuals and perennials. Modern cultivars, with their compact growth habit and flowers in white, cream, yellow, pink, apricot and ruby, are suitable for the smallest garden and make attractive subjects for pots. Marguerites need sunshine and well-drained soil enriched with compost.
* Encourage butterflies in your garden by providing shelter from strong winds, sun to warm their wings for flight, flat stones where they can sun themselves, some rocks with shallow holes that hold water for them to drink and some muddy puddles. - Saturday Star