Your garden: Rich soil helps home growing
Your garden: Rich soil helps home growing
This week's tips for your garden.
Your Garden
Starting seed under cover best for tender plants
Starting seed under cover best for tender plants
Vegetables In warmer districts, where no more frosts are expected, runner and butter beans can be sown. In most gardens, it is better to delay growing these tender vegetables outdoors and to get seed started under cover. This is also true of sweet corn and outdoor tomatoes.
Wait for right weather before springing to action
Wait for right weather before springing to action
Vegetables Many types of vegetables can be sown this month, weather permitting.
Giving autumn crops a push
Giving autumn crops a push
This week's tips for your garden
Don't be seduced by mild weather
Don't be seduced by mild weather
This week's tips for your garden.
Crop rotation minimises chances of disease
Crop rotation minimises chances of disease
VegetablesCrop rotation may sound overly scientific for the ordinary gardener, but it is an important way of getting the most from the vegetable garden while minimising the risk of diseases such as club root in cabbages or basal rot (caused by Fusarium oxysporum) in onions, garlic and leeks.
Protecting crops with hedges
Protecting crops with hedges
This week's tips for your garden.
Sweetening soil helps most crops
Sweetening soil helps most crops
VegetablesEvery opportunity should be taken in the next few weeks to dig and manure the vegetable garden, leaving the ground exposed to the weather, which will help ensure it is in good order for next season's crops.
Potatoes best kept in light
Potatoes best kept in light
VegetablesPotatoes are an easy-to-grow staple vegetable and many varieties are available.
Rhubarb requires constant nourishment
Rhubarb requires constant nourishment
Vegetables Now is a good time to develop or extend a rhubarb bed as the plants (crowns) are dormant during winter.
Plant cabbage now for an early harvest
Plant cabbage now for an early harvest
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.
Tall broad bean plants need to be supported
Tall broad bean plants need to be supported
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.
April traditional month to sow broad beans
April traditional month to sow broad beans
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.
Raised beds increase soil warmth
Raised beds increase soil warmth
VegetablesDepending on their position and soil types, not all gardens can be cultivated intensively from now on.
Soil from spuds ideal for autumn plants
Soil from spuds ideal for autumn plants
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.
Autumn sowing is best in the South
Autumn sowing is best in the South
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.
Digging early helps winter greens
Digging early helps winter greens
Potato crops can be harvested before the tops have died right away from the plants. In small gardens, digging early enables the area to be used for winter greens such as silver beet or spring cabbage, or for a green manure crop (oats, peas, lupins) to be sown.
Time for a dusting of derris dust
Time for a dusting of derris dust
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.
Autumn the time for garden maintenance
Autumn the time for garden maintenance
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.