GrowSmart Calendar - February

Still hot and dry but the weather's more settled so keep watering your garden - it's best to water deeply and less often than a little too often (collect the rain water from your roof to save money and water). Your leafy green plants will like a liquid feed (with a brew of compost tea or liquid blood and bone) to keep growing strong.

If the best plants are left to grow and set seed, you can harvest those seeds on a dry day and store in a cool place to plant next year.

You can keep planting seedlings to have crops ready for autumn, as long as they are kept watered and protected from the hot midday sun. This could include brocolli, beetroot, silver-beet, cauliflower and cabbage. Sow brocolli, dwarf beans, cabbage, carrots, celery, endive, leeks, parsnip, radish, spinach, spring onions, swedes and turnips. Plant potatoes too.

Plant of the month - Beetroot

Beetroot can be sown for most of the year in the warmer parts of the country. Soak the seed for a couple of hours before sowing. Beetroot is a good hardy crop which will mature quickly over summer if the watering is deep to encourage growth of roots. Avoid watering a little and often, as the root will not devleop well. It's best planted after a main crop such as cabbage or tomato.