Plant butter and bush beans;  peas; carrots; radish; beetroot; broccoli; broccolette; cabbage  varieties of red, savoy, lion heart and Chinese;  cucumber; eggplant; capsicum; kale;  potatoes; lettuce varieties of combo and  iceberg;  sweet corn; leek;  cauliflower varieties tasty, paleface and deep heart; spinach varieties  include Japanese, baby leaf, perpetual and  climbing; brown, white, spring and red Californian onions; pumpkin; swede; zucchini; silverbeet; rhubarb; strawberries and tomatoes.

Chilli, eggplants and cucumbers can go into pots ready for planting out when the weather is consistently warm.

Feed vegetable plants every couple of weeks with Thrive Soluble Plant Food. 

In the flower garden plant verbena, lobelia, ageratum blue, erigeron seaside daisy, snapdragon, impatiens, forget-me-not, hollyhock,  delphinium, cineraria, gazania, begonia, Queen Anne’s Lace, dahlia, cosmos, zinnias,  poppies, carnations, cornflowers, asters, salvias, nemesia, phlox, stocks, nasturtiums, celosia, geraniums, violets, pansies, marigolds and cerastium

The beautiful lilacs are putting on a good show with plenty of blossoms and their distinct sweet, cinnamon-like fragrance. Most lilacs bloom on the previous year’s wood so prune immediately after  flowering. Mulch with compost.

Clematis are beautiful flowering vines  comprising of woody, deciduous as well as herbaceous and evergreen varieties and   are not  difficult to grow. Plant  in  fertile soil that has had  plenty of organic compost dug into it. They also require mulch to  protect their roots from the sun. These climbers are at their best when  left to scrambling  through  trees or planted with a climbing rose.  I used to have a  mauve clematis entwined with a deep red rose.  Magic!

Transplant rhododendrons immediately after flowering. Soak the root area well a few days before moving then  replant  at the same depth as it was previously. 

Green sprouting or Calabrese broccoli produces a fairly large green head made up of tightly packed flower buds. When this head is cut, a number of side shoots form, each producing  a smaller green head. The heads should be harvested, before any buds burst open into flower, with about 15cms of the fleshy, edible  stalk.

‘Romanesco’ has lime green flowerheads with sweet-flavoured, tightly-spiralled cones. This form doesn’t produce successive shoots.

Broccoli does well planted in a bed that has previously grown peas or beans.