Your Garden

Vegetables

As winter draws closer, the opportunities for growing vegetables are reduced, but garlic and shallots should go in from now until early spring. Plant small sections of bulbs, pushing them down to half their depth in rich, well-cultivated soil.

Vegetables

Traditionally, broad beans are sown from March until mid-May, to stand through the winter and bear crops in early summer. Renowned for their hardiness, broad beans are a favourite vegetable with many southern gardeners, as not only do seeds germinate in cold ground but the plants prefer heavier soils.

Vegetables

Vegetables

Think ahead to spring and start improving heavy, clay-based soil by digging it roughly so different levels are exposed to winter frosts, winds, rain and sun.

Vegetables

Depending on their position and soil types, not all gardens can be cultivated intensively from now on.

Vegetables Cabbage, cauliflower and silverbeet can still be planted to stand the winter. Ground from which potatoes have been lifted recently is ideal for these crops.

Vegetables

By now, cooler areas may have had a touch of frost but in all regions carrots, being cold-tolerant, can be left in the ground until August.

Vegetables

Brassicas (plants of the cabbage family) planted in late December or during January will now need protection from white butterfly caterpillars and grey aphids.

Vegetables Garden maintenance is important at this time of the year. Hoe regularly between rows to control weeds and maintain a good texture (tilth) of the soil. Small weeds can be left on the ground but any with flower heads should be put in the compost bin as many will make a last-ditch attempt and produce seeds on severed stems.

Vegetables Onion seed sown this month will withstand the winter, then mature into good-sized bulbs for harvesting next summer.