February gardening jobs

There’s lots to do around the garden at this time of year. Here are some late-summer jobs to keep you busy.

Sow cool climate flowers

Lucky cool-climate gardeners can grow choice winter/spring annuals such as lupins (below), nigella, poppies and wallflowers. Now is the time to sow seeds of these in trays or pots of seed-raising mix. Keep them in a cool place and gradually move the seedlings into more sun as the weather cools. Plant seedlings in autumn and feed fortnightly with liquid fertiliser so they can put on as much growth as possible before the winter slowdown.

Prepare beds for winter vegies

Now’s the time to arrange empty garden beds for autumn planting of your winter vegies. First, deal with weeds. Remove and bin any flowers or seedheads and dig in soft stems and leaves to add free organic matter to the soil. Chop up and compost woody stems. Dig over the soil and mix in some aged manure or well-composted organic matter. Most vegies like a reasonably sweet soil so check the pH (many garden centres will do this for free) and add garden lime or dolomite (dolomite has extra magnesium) if the soil is acidic (pH5 or below). Water well, cover with a layer of mulch and leave the whole lot to blend together so it will be ready for planting in autumn.

Care for your citrus

Here’s a late summer to-do list for citrus:

Keep trees well watered while fruit is developing.
Maintain a layer of organic mulch over the root area, ensuring it is clear of the trunk.
If new leaves show the tracks of citrus leaf miner, try lightly spraying the leaf tips with horticultural oil once a week. Only apply in cool weather.
Be on the lookout for sap-sucking stink bugs. Hand remove wearing eye and skin protection.
As the weather starts to cool, feed trees with a fruit tree fertiliser. Water well before and after application.
Thin crowded clusters of fruit, leaving one or two per stem.