What to plant and do in the Melbourne garden this month
What to plant…
- Veggies: It’s still cold but days are lengthening. If you’ve got a mini-greenhouse, you can start planting your summer seeds like tomato, capsicum and eggplant. But they do need warm soil too to germinate. You can also be planning out cabbage, asian greens like mizuna, tatsoi or pak choi, lettuce, rocket, spinach, mustards, spring onions, leek, onions, spinach radish and parsley seedlings out into the garden.
- Fruit trees: Don’t miss out on your chance to buy bare-root apples, pears, peaches, cherries and nectarines. It’s also the best time to winter prune. Now’s a good time to apply some aged manure or compost covered by mulch to prepare your fruit trees for the spring growth spurt. A dusting of potash first helps with fruit production. If you have a problem with leaf curl on your peaches and nectarines, now’s your last chance to spray with Bordeaux (a copper based, low-toxicity fungicide), before the leaf buds burst.
Fertilising, mulching and watering
- With overcast winter weather upon us we can consider raking up mulch to expose the dark soil, allowing it to warm up under the day’s sunshine. However be sure to return it by mid spring.
- Now’s a good time to prepare your spring planting beds if they aren’t currently being used. Tomatoes for instance will appreciate some compost, dynamic lifter and applying a straw mulch. Let it rest and the bed will be all primed for planting late next month.
Plan your future garden
If you want to grow food for spring and summer but haven’t got your own garden yet, now is a great time to install and plant a garden. Not sure where to start? We can help you with customised DIY sustainable timber raised garden bed and wicking bed kits to suit your garden, or we can install any of these options for you.
