February 2025 Planting Guide and Garden Update
I live in a relatively high rainfall area, but most of the rain falls in winter. I make the most of this by banking it in tanks. The rainwater is then delivered back to the garden in summer using a very efficient irrigation system that is buried under a thick layer of wood chip mulch. Combined with the odd summer downpour to recharge my anti-swales, this means I can usually get away with using mostly captured rainwater to keep the garden thriving.
However, the downpours have been few and far between this summer. Overnight and daytime temperatures have been above average, and the winds feel like they’ve been blowing constantly. My goodness, will the wind just piss right off.
These conditions have dried the soil out completely. Trees are racing their roots to exploit any areas with irrigation (eg my berry patch) and the grass has gone completely brown and crispy.
As a back-up to the stored rainwater, we have a bore. The water from the bore is not overly saline, but I notice that certain plants still don’t cope well with it. Regardless of whether they are watered with rainwater or bore water, my tomatoes thrive. But I only have to glance at the bore pump and the beans and eggplants instantly look frazzled and stop flowering. Some of the ornamental grasses and shrubs develop brown leaves despite the sudden increase in available soil moisture.
At the start of January, tank levels were plummeting. With no sign of a summer storm on the way, I fired up the bore pump and began mixing bore water into the tanks with the remaining fresh water to delay or hopefully avoid the need to switch to undiluted bore water. But at the end of January, the diluted bore water ran out.
Most of the garden is now subject to straight bore water. I do have a tank of fresh water in reserve that is connected to a separate pump and irrigation system. I’ll use this to keep my berry collection and greenhouse plants alive. (The blueberries, especially, won’t cope with bore water.)
I’m no longer stingy with the irrigation, I’m sloshing bore water everywhere.
But what does February have in store?
The dry in February always catches me by surprise and it shouldn’t. Every year that we have lived here, the rain clouds have been miserly with their offerings in February.
Monthly rainfall totals on my property (mm)
I hope I’m wrong, but based on recent February rainfall totals, I’m expecting my garden to be further challenged by drought. For several hours on Sunday night the lightning flashed and the thunder raged. Despite this fury, and the promise of rain moving across the BOM weather radar toward the blue dot, I tipped only three millimetres from the rain gauge on Monday morning.
Low rainfall means the bore water will continue to flow through my irrigation drippers. This will make or break some of the sensitive perennial plants in my garden. But whatever comes out alive on the other side of February will have proven its resilience.
Viva la zucchina?
With adequate irrigation, the vegetables are loving the heat. The cucurbits such as zucchini, cucumbers and button squash are doing their usual best to overwhelm us. You might remember that back in December I decided to break my one zucchini plant rule and plant a backup? This was in response to the wet start to December and my worry about a return of the powdery mildew that plagued the previous summer. Well, the humid conditions haven’t developed, and both zucchini plants are thriving. Despite the developing glut (every visitor now leaves with a zucchini), I just can’t bring myself to cull that backup plant.
Smurfette not so peachy
I have a list of favourite tomatoes that I plant every year. They include Jaune Flamme, Wapsipinicon Peach and Black Cherry (this article mentions a few more of my favourites). But each year I like to trial one or two new varieties. It keeps things interesting and sometimes a new variety is so good that it knocks one of my existing favourites out of contention. Last year Earl of Edgecombe was so good that it became my main slicing tomato.
This year, I’m trialling two new varieties that were recommended to me by readers. The first is Japanese Black Trifele, a large slicing tomato that is black and pear shaped. Cracks have developed in some of the fruit (although not as many as in other slicing varieties) and the flavour is pretty good, but I can’t detect the smoky flavour it is reputed to have.
The second new tomato variety is one that came recommended by several of my readers. It’s called Dancing with Smurfs. The name probably appeals to those who, like me, grew up with the Smurfs cartoon series on TV. These cherry tomatoes look amazing, with their blue-tinged tops, but the flavour leaves a little to be desired. It’s good, but not amazing.
Brassica boom but butterfly bust?
With the cold winters here in Kyneton, our brassica crops need to be established much earlier in the year than in, say, Melbourne. In late December, I planted my first crop of brassicas. I sowed the seeds directly into the soil and then covered them immediately with insect netting to prevent attack by the dreaded Cabbage White Butterfly. I also planted a few back-up seeds of each variety in Hiko cells in the greenhouse (also protected with netting) to transplant into any gaps in the crop where the seeds didn’t germinate. Crop one is now up and racing. It’s only a small crop of four carefully selected varieties (two of cabbage, one of broccoli and one of cauliflower), just enough productivity to give some variety to our vegetable diet in autumn.
Next week I’ll plant my main crop of brassicas. There will be eight varieties this time around (two of cabbage, three of broccoli and three of cauliflower) and twice as many plants in total as crop one. I’ll plant a final third crop in early March. This small crop will only include three varieties (one broccoli and two kinds of cauliflower). Crop three will be a marginal one, as discussed here.
Last year, I planted my three successive crops with not enough time between crops. The result was that at harvest time, the three crops merged into a massive brassica glut. This year I’ve moved my first planting a week earlier and I’m aiming to plant my final crop two weeks later. I’m also refining my variety selection and planting:
early-maturing varieties in the first crop
a mix of early, mid and late varieties in the main crop
late-maturing varieties in the last crop.
Combined with the three-week extension of the planting times from first to last crop, I should be able to spread the brassica harvest period by a further six to eight weeks on what I did last year. That means harvesting brassicas from March through to November.
Good record keeping enables to me to continue to fine tune my succession planting and even out the peaks and troughs in my harvests. This post describes how it can help you too.
Interestingly, there’s hardly any Cabbage White Butterfly about this summer. I suspect this is because of the dry summer conditions. Perhaps Victorian farmers are growing fewer brassica crops such as canola this summer? Either way, I’m hopeful the insect netting that protects my young brassica seedlings can be removed very early in the season this year.
Summer snip snip
February is a great time to do a bit of fruit tree pruning. Traditionally fruit trees have been pruned in winter. This results in vigorous growth of leaves and branches, at the expense of fruit.
The new growth that follows fruit tree pruning in summer is restrained, and is much less vigorous than the growth that occurs following a winter pruning. Summer pruning allows trees to put more energy into fruit the following growing season.
Winter pruning grows big trees.
Summer pruning promotes fruit.
Once each of my trees has had all its fruit harvested, I usually give it a summer prune. I pruned my cherry trees in early January. I’m pruning my free-standing cherry tree using the Spanish bush method of pruning. The early January prune was simply a matter of pinching out the growing tips with my fingers. No secateurs required.
The apricots and a rampant plum tree are next in line for a tidy up. I’ll be getting stuck into these established trees as part of demonstrations at my upcoming pruning workshop.
Espaliered fruit trees need attention several times per growing season and mine are now ready for their second tidy-up. Pruning espaliers can seem daunting, but once you’ve got your head around fruiting spurs, apical meristems and sap flow, it becomes so simple.
Come along to my upcoming summer fruit tree pruning workshop on Friday February 21 to gain the confidence to tackle your own espaliers, fruit tree monsters and even young fruit trees.
Can’t make it that day? You can book in for a fruit tree pruning masterclass in your own backyard. You can even gather a group of friends or family together and share the cost.
Berry patch delights and disappointments
Last month I wrote about my blackberry canes that were trying to touch the top of my netted enclosure, 4.8 m high. They still haven’t managed that feat, but already they have produced five kilos of delicious, plump fruit. There are many more potential kilos of fruit developing. But alas, I haven’t given the berry patch quite enough water. I find that the first sign of drought stress in cane berries, such as raspberries and blackberries, is diminishing fruit quality. When soil moisture dries around the base of the canes, the fruit doesn’t swell to the usual size. It becomes dry, loses flavour, and in more extreme cases, shrivels and aborts completely. All of this occurs while the foliage still looks lush and healthy.
All of the commonly grown berries need a lot of water to maintain productivity. My cane berries haven’t had enough this summer. It’s happened a few times in recent years, and I need to get better at paying attention to the soil moisture and irrigation in the berry patch.
Hopefully, with increased irrigation I’ll get to harvest some late autumn raspberries of better quality. But for the next few weeks I’ll be watching the flow-on effects from the late January dry as all the raspberry and blackberry fruit that set in mid to late January amounts to nothing. My silver lining is that equates to less time spent harvesting.
The blueberries have also been affected by drought stress, but not as much as the cane berries. As I mentioned last month, there’s a lot of shrivelling fruit on some of the blueberry bushes. In January the number of affected plants increased. Yields of quality fruit picked will be down slightly on last year. I had picked 18 kg by the end of January 2024, but ‘only’ 15 kg at the same time this year. With seven kilos of blueberries in the freezer, that’s more than enough for us. All being well, I’ll continue to harvest blueberries for the next three or four months.
The strawberries are just starting to return to productivity. Each November my plants produce a huge crop that peters out in mid-December. The plants then turn their attention to throwing out a jungle of runners. I didn’t get around to taming the jungle until the end of January and in that time the single row of plants tripled in width. When the plants put so much energy into producing leaves, they have little left for fruit production. Removing the runners allows:
increased airflow, so there is less rotting fruit if we receive some rainfall
fewer hiding spots where pests like harlequins, slaters and earwigs can breed up
increased light availability to the original plants, which I find increases overall fruit production
less energy going into runners, enabling more available energy for fruit production.
Tickets are selling fast for my upcoming Grow Great Berries workshop on Friday May 2. Secure your spot now if you’d like to attend.
My to-do list this February
Harvesting, harvesting, harvesting. Daily visits to the vegetable patch to pick zucchini, cucumbers and button squash. Tomatoes, beans, snow peas and strawberries need picking every second or third day. The blueberries are more forgiving and I only need to pay them weekly or even fortnightly visits to keep on top of the harvesting. Then there’s the fruit. The earliest of the plums have just started ripening and soon there’ll be boxes of them at the back door to trip over
Monitoring Cherry Slug infestations. This is the time of year when the damage they cause is most noticeable on pear, cherry and plum tree leaves. I don’t usually do much about it (it helps to keep the fruit trees small, but productive) but if my trees are already drought stressed and don’t look like they are coping then I may intervene with a dusting of wood ash. Read more about this garden pest here.
Tidying up the espaliers. This will be their second haircut of the growing season. I’ll be managing some of the most urgent and overgrown cases this week and will leave the rest as demonstrations in my upcoming pruning workshop.
Pruning the apricot and plum trees that have already been picked clean.
February is an important month for citrus care. Citrus trees are heavy feeders, so it’s a good idea to keep them fertilised during their active growth periods (spring through to late summer). Fertilising after February will stimulate leaf growth into autumn and winter. This will make the tree susceptible to frost damage and infestation with Citrus Leafminer. I recommend early February as your last chance to feed your citrus trees until next spring.
Harvesting the early season apples and pears – they’re almost ready. Last year the dreaded Codling Moth was virtually absent from my fruit. I’m noticing that numbers are still very low this year, but they are increasing. I’ll be making patrols of my pome trees to remove any infested fruit.
Codling Moth and Cherry Slug are usually both prevalent in late summer.
What to plant in February
February can be a time of baking hot sun, high temperatures and strong winds. Any new vegetable seedlings will need plenty of care and attention if you are planting them now.
The Vegetable Patch from Scratch series is popular with both novice and seasoned gardeners alike. It covers everything you might want to know about growing vegetables. It might save you a bit of time and frustration by steering you away from preventable crop failures.
My planting guide generally refers to vegetables planted in the garden (as opposed to a greenhouse). This planting may consist of seeds directly sown (my usual and preferred method) or plants transplanted as seedlings. Read more about using this guide here.
Here's a guide to some of the things you could consider planting this month in a warm temperate climate like Melbourne’s.
You can start a herb garden almost any time of the year. Try growing the following and save yourself a heap of money you would otherwise spend on over-packaged bunches of herbs at the supermarket:
Thyme
Sage
Parsley
Mint
Rosemary
Coriander
Chives
Oregano
Spring onions
Basil
Dill
Leafy greens will grow well in the garden now. Just make sure you protect the tender young leaves from the harsh sun. Consider allocating space to these quick growing, very productive plants and start getting ready for home-grown salads in six to eight weeks.
Lettuce
Spinach
Rocket
Endive
Silverbeet
Mustard greens
Kale
Chervil
Some of the root vegetables can be planted in February.
Radishes
Parsnips
Beetroot
Turnips
Most fruiting crops need a long growing period over the summer and should be started in late October or early to mid November. It's probably too late to put in tomatoes, pumpkins, tromboncinos and zucchini. However, there's still time to plant out some of the following:
Beans (try bush beans as it's getting late in the season for runner beans)
Winter Crops
The following winter crops can be sown as seed in trays now, for transplanting into the garden when temperatures cool down. Just be aware that Cabbage White Butterflies tend to ruin any unprotected early crops. Plan ahead and have some insect netting ready to protect them.
Brussels sprouts
Cauliflower
Cabbage
If you have some fallow space available, you can start preparing the soil for your hungry winter crops by adding lots of compost and well-rotted manure. Check out my autumn planting guide for more information on growing winter vegetables.
Good luck and happy gardening
Duncan
If I could keep up with all your informed posts (from lived experience!), I would be the gardener I always wish to be! Productive, realistic, rewarded by flourishing plants and healthy harvests, and doing it all in tune with nature. Thanks so much for sharing all that you are learning yourself.
My favourite tomatoes are Juane Flamme, Wapsipinicon Peach and Lucid Gem. I’ll be keen to hear your feedback if you give those a try.