Sowing and Transplanting in February
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late April harvest
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.
‘Reine de Glace’
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
Reine de Glace is an heirloom treasure! Fresh, mineral, juicy - it is a stunner that enjoys heading as the days get shorter! We have also had good success with late summer sown Carmona and Pirat butter lettuces. Both have good bolt resistance. And in mid/late February, we bring back Head Cardinal and Red Iceberg. We love to enjoy these before a winter of gem lettuces!
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 - 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!
And romaines like Jadeite, Double Density, 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 ‘Fingal’
Celery
We sow our late Autumn and Winter supply of celery this week
perilla ‘Britton’ and ‘bronze’ fennel
Herbs
Coriander does bolt quickly throughout summer so we successively sow it every two weeks to keep up the supply. In March we switch to 3 weeks.
Dill is not only a favorite in potato salad, we love it in our cut flower bouquets. We sow our last planting of the season in February
Perilla’s bright, minty perfume with hints of cinnamon and clove are not only delicious with fish or muddled into a mojito, with its long vase life, it also adds lovely colour to cut flower arrangements
Parsley sown now will provide you leaves through winter
Roots
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”
Orach is a heat loving spinach like leaf that can be deep purple to golden. We love adding it to salads, putting it under fish or BBQ chicken and sautéing it on its own
Rocket - for a constant supply, sow every two weeks
Perpetual Spinach - A silverbeet that can cope with the heat and is delicious harvested young
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 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.”
Cosmos planted now will flower in mid Autumn, just as your early sown ones have finished for the season. Depending on the coolness, they will continue flowering until May.
Celosia - they love establishing in the warm weather and will give you a flush of flowers perfect for your last bouquets before frost
Successive sowings of Zinnias can help overcome powdery mildew.
Salvia ‘Siruis Blue’, sow now, will bloom until frost and the colour intensifies with the cold
Edible flowers alyssum, calendula and nasturtium
Successive plantings of fillers such as nigella, pennycress and mignonette
Sunflowers
Read our tips for Success sowing seeds in summer. 5 min read!
Take advantage of our SUCCESSIVE PLANTING, AUTUMN SEEDS and SUMMER LETTUCE SEED COLLECTIONS which offer a 20% savings over buying individual packets.
PLEASE NOTE - These recommendations are completely based on our 15 years of growing on this patch in Southern Victoria, Australia. See Key Information To Record For Future Success to understand on what we base this information.
