February Seasonal Gardening Tips

February Seasonal Gardening Tips

Another HOT humid start to the month with everything growing like mad! Many of our gardens are turning into jungles. There's a constant sound of mowers and whipper snippers trying to keep up with growth. They are overpowering the usually deafening cicadas in song. The forest mulch we piled into our gardens has been working its magic. Not only locking in valuable moisture from recent rains but also creating habitat for microorganisms and mycorrhizal fungi and turning into rich dark humus. Trees and shrubs that were looking sad and holding onto survival for dear life have burst into leaf and flower. Many plants have self-sown with seedlings turning up in all sorts of places including the lawn. Coriander, lettuce, rocket, cosmos, marigolds, nasturtiums, parsley, chicory, various spinach varieties, Asian greens and tomatoes I haven't had to sow seeds for. It's much easier to just dig them out and transplant to more convenient locations. The QLD Arrowroot has rocketed up again. An incredibly hardy perennial. The garden is also blooming with flowers and abuzz with bees of all kinds. Cosmos, portulacas, yarrow, comfrey, chicory, salvias, nasturtiums, marigolds, phlox, Cat's whiskers, ribbon bush, brunfelsia, jasmine, and many other perennials. Sweet potato and pumpkins are running around the garden like out-of-control children and have no concern for other plants they will climb over! My 'wild child' edibles for sure. I'm planning some serious secateuring this week to control them. Anyhow, in the attached PDF, I share some seasonal growing tips for our local climate, what to plant, a few issues to consider and garden tasks for this time of year. I hope you find this month’s tips helpful. Dig in! Cheers, Anne The Micro Gardener