February In My Central Otago Garden | The Hot & Cool Of It

Hello Peak Summer!

Now that the month of January is over, February is the true start to summer and summer temperatures.

And after a lot of us had time to spend at home and hopefully in our gardens, fingers crossed the work we put in when we had the time will be paying off now.

February here in Central is generally a hot time, and now that we have resumed normal life, the garden can become a little neglected, a bit rough around the edges.

For me, that means I’m not keeping up with the regular feeds, the tomatoes don’t get as much attention, and courgettes turn into marrows quite quickly, but…

For me fortunately early in the winter last year I made the plan for exactly this time of year. Planting more flowers and space fillers has worked well for me.

This means less exposed soil for the sun to stress the plants with, I’m not having to water any differently because the extra planting help with water retention and as the older plants finish they act as shade for the seedlings coming up.

Speaking of seedlings this is the time of year to start getting your seeds sown for autumn/early winter vegetables if that’s what you are planning.

You may possibly be able to get some board beans and peas down too, one final reminder of those tasty early summer vegetables. But mostly it will be brassicas, leeks, carrots and leafy green that will be happening in the garden from now on.

As things go to seed in the garden don’t be in a rush to pull those spend plants. Especially when it come to things like coriander, parsley, marigolds and calendula. Free plants and so easily self seeded that you will never need to buy another plant again.

To the point of actually too much but all gardeners love a free plants and this is a great example. You don’t need to do much , though you may want to spread them a round a bit which is easy, just take some of the spent seed heads and take them to other area of your garden lay them on the soil and walk away, it’s that easy!!

They are prolific self seeded. You may want to thin them.

There isn’t much else to do in the garden when it’s hot so I say, grab a coffee (or a wine depending on time of day) and sit and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Because come March you will need all that time to start processing your harvests for enjoying in the winter months.