Plant your spring-flowering annuals and vegetables now and fertilise them in three weeks or so to get them well-developed before the cold weather begins.
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In the vegetable garden plant Tasty, Mini White and the unusual Sicily Purple cauliflowers and choose broccoli varieties like Romanesco, Broccolette, Green Dragon and Magic Dragon.
Also it’s time to plant garlic, celery, swedes, winter lettuce, wasabi salad, kale, silverbeet, beetroot, leeks, onions and cabbages.
Sweet peas, statice, primulas, polyanthus, gypsophlia, lupins, hollyhocks, pansies, larkspur, aquilegias, foxgloves, stock, poppies, lobelia and snapdragons can go in the ornamental garden.
Hellebore care
Hellebores are usually divided in April and May by splitting the clumps into smaller pieces consisting of just one tuft of growth and a few roots because if you make your divisions too large they will often sulk.
Sweet Salvia
Salvias are great planted in groups in the herbaceous borders where they will quickly fill up any spaces.
They like full sun to partial shaded positions in well-drained, friable soil to which organic material has been added.
There is a good range in nurseries at the moment in flower colours of pink, crimson, cream, scarlet, blue and white on vertical spike-like clusters that contrast well with the attractive green foliage.
Pinch out tips in young plants to encourage branching.
Growing greens
Leeks that are the most flavoursome are those that have had a long, unchecked growing season.
Winter maturing varieties will grow slowly through the cold months then kick away when the warmer weather arrives. Leeks like a fertile, moist soil with a pH of 6.5-7.
Chinese cabbage is very easy to grow if you have enriched the soil with plenty of organic matter.
Pak Choy is the most commonly grown.
The leaves are eaten fresh while still young and used in soups and stir fries.
Kohlrabi is a delicious vegetable if eaten young and tender.
When left to over-mature it may become tough and stringy.
Perfect Proteas
There are some important rules to follow to ensure the successful cultivation of proteas.
Good drainage is essential; provide an acid soil; never water overhead especially in the hot midday sun and don’t feed with fresh animal manures.
Remove spent flowers by cutting well back into the previous season’s growth but not into old woody growth as most proteas don’t shoot out from old growth, so pruning should be regular rather than infrequent and heavy.
Plant in an open, sunny position where there is plenty of air movement.
