What a wonderful month in the garden this is! In the southern regions of our widely diverse country, gardens are ablaze with glorious displays of late winter and spring blooms which are budding nicely further north as upland gardeners, always with very different planting calendars, await balmy spring days to begin sowing what others have already grown.

Nurseries across the length and breadth of Pakistan are busy tending the legions of pot-grown flower seedlings that will brighten late spring and summer gardens everywhere with, alongside traditional favourites, tentative new introductions appearing here and there.

Seasonal flowers such as larkspur, Victoria sage, Virginia stocks, stocks, Californian and other poppies, pansies, violas, cornflowers, sweet sultan, alyssum, lobelia, ageratum, verbena et al are at their very best at this time of the year. Those of you currently enjoying magnificent displays of these should, before they begin to decline, make a point of going around the garden, coloured thread and scissors in hand, to tag the strongest, most prolific, ‘prize’ plants. As before too long, it will be time to harvest seeds and put them, carefully labelled, into storage so that you have plenty to sow next time around without, unless you want to expand your collection, having to take recourse to going out and purchasing more.

It’s time to prepare a blooming garden and enjoy the fruits of your labour in the months to come

Harvesting your own seeds — although not from plants cultivated from F1 or F2 hybrid seeds as these are liable to be grossly inferior to the parent plants — is not at all difficult.

Red Swiss chard — Leaf beet

Simply allow the chosen plants to die back and dry out naturally and then cut off — carefully so that they don’t burst and scatter seeds all over the place — individual seed heads / pods, spread them out on trays or sheets of newspaper until you are certain that they are perfectly dry and thus ready for storage. Alternatively you can cut entirely dry plants, tie them in bunches, hang them upside down in a shady, airy place with trays / newspapers laid underneath to catch the ripe seeds as they fall.

Seeds must be completely dry before being stored, preferably in airtight containers kept in a relatively cool place. If they have a high moisture content when stored, they are liable to spoil and rot and we certainly do not want that to happen!

Towards the end of the month, providing that the ambient temperature is rising nicely in the south and in the plains — hill dwellers will have to wait a while yet — flower lovers can sow their own early to late summer colour with the following being just a few suggestions: cosmos, nicandra, zinnia, sunflower, tithonia, dahlia, carnations, annual chrysanthemums, portulaca, matricaria, gaillardia, rudbekia, corncockle and verbena.

The increasingly important vegetable gardens — in a step towards reducing chemicals in our lives do remember to grow organically please — should, everywhere in the country, despite prevailing weather conditions if you have planned and planted wisely, be chock-a-block full of a wide assortment of highly nutritious vegetables with, one hopes, space to add even more. This month is perfect, except in upland locations where winter tends to linger on, for sowing lettuce — and do try both ‘oak leaf’ and ‘cos’ varieties if you can, cucumber — look out for the ‘Heirloom’ seeds of those with white or yellow fruits as a colourful change from green; radish, aubergines, tomatoes, ladies fingers, spinach, Swiss chard / Leaf beet, cabbage, cauliflower, French beans, sugar snap peas. After the middle of the month, make a start on sowing members of the ‘gourd’ family, ‘tindas’ for example, as well.

French beans

If herbs are to your taste, and it is wonderful to witness so many people trying them out these days, then you may like to try your hand with borage, basil of as many varieties as you can get, oregano, marjoram, agastache, chervil, chives, garlic chives, lemon balm, sage, applemint, calendula, nasturtium and lemon grass, with the latter best grown from root cuttings rather than seed.

You can, and imagine the fresh, summer taste, also start on your first few watermelons in the last week of the month, planting just two to three more seeds each week over the coming couple of months or so until their sowing season ends. Sowing a small number each week is far better than sowing a lot at once. This way, all going well, you should have watermelons over an extended period of time rather than being buried beneath a deluge all at once.

If you have the space, try growing watermelons in old tyres filled to the brim and then mounded up with the best quality sweet earth, mixed with a high percentage of organic compost / old, well-rotted, organic manure, you can get. An individual seed, sown right on top of the mound, should — providing the plant is regularly and copiously watered when needed — supply you with some really mouth-watering fruit.

Chives

Individual pumpkin seeds will also thrive in tyres.

Growing watermelons and pumpkins in old tyres — these are easily obtained from many garages and scrap yards — is an excellent way of ensuring that each plant has optimum soil conditions in which to flourish and, if you get it right, they will grow like the proverbial beanstalk!

Other jobs in the garden this month include:

*Pay some extra special attention to all of your fruit which will, without exception, benefit from a liberal top-dressing (this means spreading on top of the soil around, but not touching, their trunks) of top notch, organic compost / old, well rotted, organic manure. Also check them over for pests and disease and take immediate action if you spot anything amiss.

*If you still have some room and if you have prepared planting holes in advance, then you can have a last minute tree planting session, preferably of fruit or other useful trees, plus, climbers, creepers and shrubs.

*Propagate shrubs by taking cuttings or, if suitable species, by air or ground layering.

*Hard prune any poinsettias which have finished flowering, making cuttings for new plants as you go.

*Try to keep on top of hand weeding. Overcrowded weeds, especially tall growing ones, inhibit the growth of other plants and can harbour pests and diseases.

*Pay attention to the individual watering requirements of all of your plants, large and small, and remember that the art of watering means life or death for all growing things. More on this very subject soon!

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer will not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, February 1st, 2015

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