The
weather continues to be mostly dry, with warmer than average day and night time
temperatures for this time of year. But don’t be fooled into thinking the
summer growing season will continue much longer! Now that the days are
noticeably shorter, soon there will not be enough sunlight hours to maintain
the warmth in the soil. Did you know that a mulched soil full of active,
healthy microbes will be warmer than a soil fed with fertilisers? Let’s hope
that good autumn rains arrive soon.
With all the chaos in the world it is easy to fall into
despair. But for me, just being in my garden, working in sunshine or mizzle in
my garden, having coffee under a tree in my garden, chatting to the chooks and
even talking on the phone in the garden, bring some relief from all that is
happening.
Multisowing
For many vegetables there are considerable benefits from
sowing two or more seeds together in trays plus you use less potting mix. Basil benefits greatly and
grows much stronger, when multisown. I have noticed this myself.
Charles Dowding has experimented with multisowing for
decades and in his new book ‘Skills for Growing’ there is a whole chapter on multisowing
details for various vegetable groups and uses. Here are some examples….
|
VEGETABLE |
SEEDS TO SOW PER CLUMP |
DESIRED PLANTS PER CLUMP |
SPACING cms |
|
Kale for salad |
4 |
3 |
22 |
|
Kale, larger leaves for cooking |
2-3 |
1 |
30-35 |
|
Radish |
5 |
4-5 |
15 |
|
Turnip |
5 |
3-4 |
30 |
|
Asian greens for salad |
4 |
3 |
22 |
|
Asian greens for cooking |
2 |
1 |
25-30 |
|
Onions for bulbs |
6-7 |
4-5 |
30 |
Multisowing is not useful for roots, such as carrots and
swedes or hearting vegetables such as cabbage and lettuce.
Spacing
When transplanting tiny seedlings it is easy to plant them
out too close together. Multisown seedlings need wider spacing than single sown
plants but you end up with more plants per square metre. If you are after
larger vegetables, they need more space than smaller. Root vegetables grown too
close together make wonderful leaves but smaller roots. Lettuce grown thickly
makes a rapid harvest of small leaves but subsequent pickings will diminish in
size and quality. Spacing can mean the difference between a beautiful cabbage
and one that just bolts to seed without forming a head.
Don’t dismiss paths as wasted space because they allow light
to reach plants as they mature, especially in winter, as well as being another
source of food for the roots of larger plants. I use my paths as mini compost
making strips by laying anything I remove from the beds directly onto the
paths, followed by a sprinkling of blood and bone, if the layer is thick. After
a few days of trampling it down as I walk by, I cover the whole path with
mulchings from my chipper, coarse straw or semi rotted woodchips. Path soil is
living soil.
Interplanting
This is a way of growing quick vegetables between the big
vegetables so that they are over and done with by the time the bigger veg need
the space. This is a kind of companion planting; a lone broccoli really enjoys
the company of a few radishes as it is filling out its roots.
Planting in blocks is so much more aesthetic than long rows
and makes working with interplanting easier. For example, within 1.5 square
metre blocks you can sow broad beans at 30cms spacing, with some bok choy
seedlings in between. Each broad bean seed eventually grows into 3 – 5 stems
and by that time, the bok choy has been harvested and eaten.
Fungi; the good, the bad and the incredible
We
eat them, we curse them and without them we could not exist and neither could
our gardens. Fungi evolved many millions of years before we did and still
occupy almost every cubic metre on earth, from the surface up and down. Every
creature, including ourselves, is full of them and we depend on their health
for our health. Without fungi nothing would decompose, we could not make
compost and our soil would just be dirt, not soil, and be devoid of life. Incredibly,
fungi can turn toxic waste into soil rich in worms and life so imagine what
fungi can do for your vegetable garden!
Autumn
is fungi fruiting time so you will see them popping up after rain, if your soil
is full of life. Rejoice if you have them and let them finish their lifecycle
in your garden as their mycorrhiza are communicating with the roots of all the
other plants, shifting nutrients from here to there, turning any amendments you
add (such as blood and bone, compost, decomposed hay etc) into a liquid state,
for your plants to take up. Healthy soil makes healthy people and neither can
exist without fungi.
Garlic
Plant
out soft neck varieties such as Tasmanian purple, now, into damp soil but do
not water until you see little green shoots appearing, or you risk them
rotting. These will be ready to harvest before Christmas, when their soft stems
brown off and begin to flop over. If overwatered at this time the water seeps
down into the garlic head and can cause rot or cause them not to store well.
Plant
out hard neck varieties later and into May. Later they will produce tall,
curly, green stems called scapes, which are fabulously delicious. I leave some
to grow scapes but most I cut off so more energy goes into growing the bulbs.
These will be ready to harvest in January or even February and have a hard
stem, right down into the garlic head. In a wet spring, these survive better as
they are less prone to rot because of the way they grow tight around the hard
neck.
|
April jobs |
Sow in April |
·
For absolutely everything you need to know
about growing garlic in Tasmania visit the website and facebook page
“Tasmanian Gourmet Garlic”. · Follow our Cygnet Garden Markets facebook page for details on our May 22nd Autumn Garden Market Spring bulbs Garlic, shallots, potato onions, salad onions Evergreen shrubs and trees Strawberries |
In trays Asian greens Radishes English spinach Chervil Coriander Spring onions Lettuce Winter annual flowers Direct Green manure Sweet peas Sugar snap peas (frost free) Broad beans Miners’ Lettuce |
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