What to do in the garden in February

[Jason]

The weather might still be hot, but February is a good month to start planting your winter vegies like carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, Brussels sprouts, parsnips and parsley.

Tropical areas are ready for planting leeks, chilies, cabbage, silverbeet, lettuce, sweet corn, tomatoes, mangoes, bananas and pineapple. You can brighten up your garden, and attract helpful insects, by planting marigolds and sunflowers.

In sub-tropical areas, you can plant beans, capsicum, carrots, chilies, cucumbers, lettuce and zucchinis in your vegie patch. Sunflowers are also good to add a splash of colour.

In temperate climates, it’s also time for winter vegies like beans, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, leeks, lettuce and parsley. Companion plants like nasturtiums, verbena, petunias and marigolds add colour and attract insects, keeping them away from your vegies.

In colder regions, it’s mostly about vegies. Start planting, beetroot, broccoli, Asian greens, carrots, cauliflower, leeks, lettuce, onions, silverbeet and parsley. For that burst of colour, look for stocks, violas, pansy, dianthus, verbena and ageratum.

Check out Garden Corner on the Bunnings website for planting advice tailored to your area and climate. 

What are you planting in your garden this month?

Jason

[Remarka6le]

A little hard to plant at the moment with the massive humidity and next to endless rain. It's looking like Feb will just be a maintenance month for us. 

[mich1972]

Well unfortunately we are going through another heatwave here in Perth with over 40 degrees in the last 4 days, yesterday reached 43 and 45 in the Swan Valley. 
so keep an eye on watering , mulching and using a good wetting agent 

[Grub80]

Hi @Jason @mich1972 @Remarka6le @tetris36 @Kellie 

Rats! Literally. Oh the joys of growing fresh fruit and veggies in your backyard, the critters love them too! So I’ve stripped my tomatoes, and fruit trees, so I’m making pasatta and lots of it. It’s been an average season for producing, my tomatoes are great, my cucumber plants ended up in the compost bin! The weather has been very mild but February is going to be hot. So mulching and wettasoil is my friend. Starting to get some cover crops in, and a few seeds to be germinated for winter crops, have you seen the price of broccoli 😳

ANY suggestions for the rats??

Cheers Leanne

[bergs]

Hi @Jason ,

I'm still waiting for my tomatoes to ripen. The only tomatoes that have ripened so far are 1/2 doz. Patio  type.

I'm starting to get chillies ripening.

My Manzano chillie has plenty of fruit  and I had to cut it back as it was taking over all my space and I couldn't access some parts of the garden.

I cut a branch with a lot of green chillies of by mistake🙄.

I put them in a paper bag and put them in the dark to see if they would change (I had been told that chillies wouldn't ripen anymore after they were picked).

A few weeks later my wife found them in the cupboard and guess what! They had all ripened😊.

The Manzano's are in their seventh season and don't look like slowing down.

Thai chillie, Carolina Reaper and Nellie Kellie are in their 3rd season and have fruit on them.

For some reason some of my chillies have been eaten by grubs.

I've never had much in the way of pests bothering my plants before except for some infestation of aphids

I have plenty of oak leaf  and mustard lettuce in abundance.

Capsicum is very slow. It hasn't been warm enough for them to thrive.

After yesterday and today's high temperature it's going to drop back to the low twenties for the next week.

My native plants think it's Autumn as they are flowering early.

My Callistemon's are still flowering now, which is unusual and it is the first time they have been flowering over Christmas.

They are usually finished by the end of November.

I don't plant much now as room is scarce as I'm still waiting for my summer crops to finish.

At the end of march I will sow broad bean and garlic.

It is early but if go north over winter they will have to be sown.

Cheers bergs🍻

[MitchellMc]

@Grub80 and @bergs,

It's great to hear that you're both making the most of what hasn't been an optimum growing season. Hopefully, you both see significant crops despite the challenges.

I had a wonderful crop of tomatoes last year, devastated over a couple of days by those little green caterpillars, which sucked my enthusiasm out for this year. I've skipped the season this year but look forward to returning to it next year. 

Many thanks for the updates.

Mitchell

[bergs]

Hi @MitchellMc,

Yes the green grubs are the result of the White Cabbage caterpillar, they are virtually camouflaged and you don't spot them until it's too late.

I was just watching them this morning. I've never seen so many White Butterflies around and as thick as this year. there were 100's.

I had some carrots and spring onions growing nicely, but this morning I noticed the birds had scratched them all out, so it's back to square one again.

Cheers bergs🍻

[Jason]

Hi Leanne (@Grub80)

You might get some handy tips from our article How do you deter rats in the garden?

What have you tried so far?

Jason

[Grub80]

Hi @Jason  I’ve tried the pre baited boxes (bought from Bunnings of course!) and have readied the Stinkin rats love my fruit and tomatoes and strawberries and figs……. I could go on 😂😂 

I have realised that this year and put up a small fence to keep my dogs out of my flower bed, so I might remove a panel and let the great white hunters do their thing.The great white hunters

[mich1972]

And we are going through another heatwave this week in Perth with with another three days of over 40 degrees. I have NOT planted anything , just trying to keep everything alive at the the moment. One pest to look out for and it is causing a lot of trouble is Armyworm. They are terrible and thrive in the summer and humid conditions. I pull them off and stomp on them !!! It’s way too hot to be spraying any insecticides - chemical or organic based. 

 

 

 

[mich1972]

I have my rat problem under control now that I have been using Ratshot Grain Bait. It’s brilliant and truly works great. I have it hidden along the fence’s and wall. It causes no secondary poisoning to other animals that may eat a dead rat. I know it may upset some people BUT it needs to be done. We have chickens and grow edibles so of course we have Rats. I have my rubber snakes hanging up everywhere in the Passionfruit as a deterrent. I also have our chicken feed in a bucket with holes so there is no food for the rats . But they will eat anything unfortunately.