February, south of the equator

February is late summer and the beginning of the most important sowing season of the southern year. The heat is still on, the days are shortening, and everything sown now has the whole mild autumn ahead of it. It is the month that decides what the garden looks like in August.

In the garden

Start the winter vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, leeks, onions, spinach, beetroot and carrots can all be sown now, and seedlings started this month establish before the light drops. Sow lettuce and rocket, which are much easier now than they were in December.

Sow the autumn flowers. Sweet peas go in from this month, which is the reason southern sweet peas are so much better than northern ones: they grow through the cool weather and flower before the heat returns. Sow calendula, pansies, poppies, stocks and snapdragons for winter and spring colour, and sow nasturtiums where you want them to trail.

Divide agapanthus just after it finishes flowering, and lift and split any overgrown clumps of perennials while there is still warmth for the roots to recover. Take cuttings of pelargonium and lavender. Order the winter and spring bulbs now, because they reach the shops next month and the good ones go quickly.

Two different Februaries

The country splits in half this month. On the summer rainfall side, from the Highveld across to the east, February is warm and wet and the autumn sowings go into ground that is already moist. In the winter rainfall Cape it is the driest, hardest part of the year, the soil is dust, and the same sowings need a watered drill and shade over the row for the first week. The dates are the same and the technique is not.

In the house

The watering interval begins to lengthen, gently, as the days shorten. It is a change of a day or two rather than a week, and it follows the light rather than the thermometer, so a hot dull spell still means slightly less water than a bright one.

This is the last good month to repot anything that needs it, because the roots have enough of the season left to fill fresh compost. After April it becomes a job for spring.

Keep feeding while growth continues. Take cuttings of anything you want more of, because rooting is still fast and a cutting struck now will be an established plant by the time winter arrives.

What not to do yet

Do not cut back the summer flowering perennials while they are still working. Do not plant a tree or shrub yet if you can hold on for the winter, when the ground is cool and the plant is dormant. And do not sow the summer annuals again, because they will not have time.