Weekend gardener
Make it a good year for the roses
February rose notes
If you haven’t already done so, prune once-flowering roses. These should be pruned as soon as they have finished flowering because they will flower primarily on mature canes.
Continue to water deeply twice a week if the weather is dry, preferably from underneath. Don’t let the earth around roses become compacted. Fork it lightly.
Grass clippings can be used sparingly as a thin mulch if you are sure they haven’t been sprayed.
Roses will benefit from spraying with liquid fertiliser – fish, seaweed, blood and bone are all good. Never spray in hot mid-day sun. Early morning or evening is best.
Continue deadheading, cutting just above the first five-leaved branchlet if you can. This encourages the roses to flower again if they are repeat bloomers. Leave some spent flowers on the bushes if you want rose hips for decoration or to make your own rosehip syrup.
You can still sow veges now but take care
It’s the hottest time of year and tender seedlings will need even more care and attention than usual.
If you didn’t sow enough brassicas last month, then sow more broccoli, cabbages, cauliflowers and kohlrabi for winter. Keep the seed trays moist or you risk buttoning – when heading brassicas produce minipremature heads instead of the whoppers you want – and net the trays against cabbage white butterflies.
Direct sow root crops such as carrots, celeriac and beetroot for winter, as well as radishes, spinach and silverbeet which you should be able to start eating by autumn.
Sow more salad greens, but keep the water on them up as they quickly become bitter if they dry out, and fill any remaining gaps with fast-growing Asian greens such as bok choy, pak choi and tatsoi.
Watch out for late tomato blight
You’ll notice the lower leaves on your tomatoes start to turn yellow and spots and mouldy patches appear, then the damage will creep up the plant. In humid weather, the whole plant can wither, turn yellow and turn up its toes in less than a week.
While in general it’s good practice to pull out any plant infected by disease as soon as you see it, by the time you notice late blight on your tomatoes it’s probably too late – the airborne spores will have already infected every plant in your garden.
So you might as well leave the plants in the ground – they will probably stop setting fruit once they are infected but green fruit that’s already on the vine should still ripen.
Next year plant in a different part of the garden where there is better airflow. To avoid (or lessen the impact of) blight next summer you can spray with fungicides, such as Fungus Fighter or Copper Oxychloride as a preventative. Spray once a fortnight during the growing season. When spraying, don’t overdo it: applying these chemicals at higher concentrations than stipulated on the pack can damage the tender foliage.
– compiled by Barbara Smith