March 2018 Kitchen Garden Guide

 

I wandered around my garden this morning, taking notes about what is happening, in order to write this garden guide direct from plot to page. It only took a few minutes for me to realise that there is more happening this time of the year in my garden than I can fit into this column. You may find this surprising when autumn is on the doorstep but, actually, life never stops in the food garden.

Seed saving

Every part of the kitchen garden is getting ready for winter by flowering, fruiting and setting seeds. Tomatoes, zucchinis, cucumbers and beans are all produced by plants in order to make seeds and reproduce themselves. It just so happens that we humans jump in and harvest their fruits before the seeds mature. If you leave a few unpicked you will be able to save the seeds later, when the fruits are fully mature and beginning to go mushy (ie well past the time we would pick them to eat) or brown and dry (in the case of bean pods).

I have left some broad bean plants in a back corner of the garden, after harvesting most of them back in November. The pods are now crisp and almost black; perfect for collecting and saving, ready to sow in a few weeks. Similarly, there are literally hundreds of seeds, dry now and ready to collect, on a couple of the best of my rainbow chard, which I tied up to a stake and allowed to flower and set seeds after months of fabulous, brilliantly green leaves and incredibly red stalks. They stand tall and brown and heavy with seed now, amongst the fresh, green cucumber plants I sowed back in December. In this way barely any space is taken up by the seeding rainbow chard as the leaves are long gone and all that is standing is the trunk, topped with a heavy head of seeds, tied to a stake.

There is nothing better for you and your family, for eliminating food miles, for food security of our region and for the health of the whole earth than saving seeds. Of all the options we are presented with to help reduce our carbon footprint, none surpasses growing food from seed that has been saved and shared in your own area.

If you don’t want to save your own seed, look for locally saved seed at any of our great Huon Valley markets or check out Crop Swap Cygnet online.

Edible Flowers and seeds

Almost everything that has been growing over summer is striving to reproduce before winter. Many of the flowers and seeds are not only edible but actually delicious. My favourite is probably the yellow flowers and developing seeds of Florence Fennel (not the wild fennel, as I find that too strong and the seeds too coarse). Don’t rip your summer vegetables out before exploring their second and third edible crops, such as the flowers and seeds!

Society garlic makes a pretty, edible border and survives very dry soil. Right now the little pink flowers are blooming and make a wonderful, garlicky addition to salads.

The Cosmos in my garden have been flowering for months, producing masses of bright, edible flowers. I also have amaranth and shiso, both providing an abundance of delicious red and green leaves all summer. Now the long, magnificent tassels of the red amaranth are breath taking and soon will be laden with the tiny amaranth seeds, which are a so-called superfood that is expensive to buy but so easy to grow!

Drying Herbs

March is the time to cut and dry herbs such as oregano, while they are in full flower. Around the Mediterranean Sea people have foraged for flowering oregano since ancient times, hanging the tall stems in a warm, dry place then storing them for use in winter soups and stews.

I also cut boughs of lemon verbena and let the vivid green leaves dry fully before packing them into jars and using as my evening tea during winter and spring, when the plants are dormant.

Garlic

What it comes down to is that, whatever garlic cultivars you choose to grow, the state of your soil will determine how well the flavour develops. The growth of the bulb itself will be determined by soil and weather.

Garlic does not need a lot of fertility but it needs humus (well rotted organic matter) and for the soil microbes to be well fed. Here is what I am going to do to prepare my soil for this year’s crop:

1.   Dig to a spade’s depth and loosen any clumps

2.   Dig in plenty of aged sheep manure (cow would be even better, I am saving my compost for brassicas and other greens)

3.   Dig in a well-known, pelletised seaweed, fish, humic acid and manure product available in large buckets.

4.   Really concentrate on improving the structure of the soil, with elbow and back grease!

5.   Mention is sometimes made of the benefits of lactobacillus bacteria in garlic growth so I might dilute some kefir or pickle juice and pour it over!

6.   Water, mulch and leave, or sow a quick green manure.

7.   Plant out at times according to what garlic you have.

The planting, harvest and storage times depend on the cultivars you grow. I will be planting 3 cultivars that I saved from last year, from late March onwards. I suggest you search online for “Tasmanian Gourmet Garlic” and a book called “Garlic”.

Sow in March	Plant out now
Beetroot Salsify Burdock Tas. swede Carrot Parsnip Spinach Broad beans Asian veg. Spring and salad onions Coriander, pennyroyal, cress	European brassica seedlings Spring onions Chives Leeks Lettuce Spinach Celery Silver beet   Evergreen shrubs and trees Spring bulbs (ixias, daffodils etc)