June 2018 Kitchen Garden Guide

 Winter is just beginning to set in, allowing extra time for gardening in mild soil temperatures and mostly calm days. The winter forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology for southern Tasmania is for warmer than average temperatures and average rainfall. This is pleasant for us humans but not so good for fruit set, much of which requires a serious number of cold nights.

Cold winters ensure a good crop of apples, cherries, pears, nuts and berries, which have a chill factor. This means they require a certain number of hours below 7C to ensure an even bloom period. However, during mild winters, as is forecast this year, the chilling requirement may not be met and could result in uneven bloom, and hence uneven pollination and less fruit set. The table below suggests the chill hours required by various fruits. Of course within, for example, apples, there are hundreds of varieties, each differing slightly in its requirements but this table gives a general guide.

Apple 300 - 1200	Chestnut 400 - 750
Apricot 300 - 1000	Almond 400 - 700
Cherry – 500 - 800	Walnut 400 – 1500
Fig 100 - 500	Avocado NONE
Grapes 100 - 500	Citrus NONE
Kiwi 400 - 800	Pear 150 - 1500
Peach 150-1200	Persimmon 100 - 700
Pecan 150 - 1600	Plum 275 - 1000
Nectarine 150 - 1200	Quince 100 - 500
Pomegranate 100 - 300	Olive 400 - 700

 

 

Winter Sheet mulching

Now is the perfect time for sheet mulching. I have several shrubbed areas I like to keep more or less grass free to reduce maintenance so here is what I do.

1.   More or less cut the grass and weeds as low as possible and leave them on the surface. or trample down flat.

2.   Throw over any vegetable scraps (even fresh), lawn clippings, plant clippings and prunings, mushroom compost, blood and bone.

3.   Completely and thoroughly cover it all with cardboard. Dampen down. Don’t worry too much about some sticky tape or coloured labels but I don’t use the shiny cardboard as it can take ages for water to get into it.

4.   Next put old manures to hold down the cardboard. Dampen again.

5.   Lastly cover with as much straw or other weed-free mulch as you can afford; 20 cms is good. Make it really dense and not too fluffy or you will soon see the cardboard.

6.   Grab a cup of coffee, pull up a seat, smile and survey your work!

If you want to use a similar method in your herb garden or perennial vegetable area, use wet newspaper instead of cardboard, as it is easier to get it around smaller plants. Lay it 10 sheets thick and generously overlapped.

If you want to make a new vegetable garden bed, then, after mowing the grass and weeds down, sprinkle the ground generously with lime before following the cardboard or newspaper method.

Winter herbs for health and flavour

Do you love pesto and lament the end of fresh basil from your garden? Well I make a wonderful, winter pesto with chervil and almonds / nettles and pistachios / parsley and walnuts.

There are so many lovely herbs that either grow and thrive only in winter or continue to hold their colour and flavour even in winter. The former includes the slightly aniseed chervil, with its pretty, soft ferny leaves which I grow as a block and clip by the handful, with scissors. Also in this category is coriander with its robust flavour and growth habit. Parsley is a fabulous winter herb, readily self-sows and is useful all through winter in meals and as a wonderful source of vitamin C, in our climate where good, organic oranges are rare.

Interestingly, all these are members of the Umbelliferae or carrot family. The family also includes angelica, asafoetida, caraway, cumin, dill and lovage, to name a few.

Rocket is another herb that germinates and thrives during winter so add a few to any pesto. Nettles are wonderful with walnuts or pistachios in a pesto, or as a pot of delicious tea; one of my favourites. Wasabi greens are a new addition to our gardens and give a great little punch and flavour to any dish, raw or lightly cooked. Easily self sows.

Other herbs that hold their colour and flavour in winter include rosemary, thyme, oregano and marjoram (but they do die down to a flat ground cover), winter savory, bay and sage, although sage should be picked sparingly as it is much less vigorous in winter.

Seeds to sow in June Sow in the garden: Broad beans Salad and spring onions Shallots Chives English spinach Radishes Sow in trays to plant out later: Brassicas Globe Artichokes Coriander Chervil Lettuce Rocket Asian greens

Plant out Garlic Asparagus crowns Divide rhubarb Winter herbs Winter flowering annuals Globe artichokes Sunchokes Bulbs Asian greens Lettuce Spinach

 

Books for winter reading

Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison (A mammoth book of every vegetable and herb imaginable – includes history, geography, culture and cooking) The Generous Earth by Philip Oyler (A beautiful book about peasant life in the Dordogne after WW2; the natural cycles of the farming and foraging life before commerce and tourism.) Japanese Farm Food by Nancy Singleton Hachisu (How a modern, young American woman married a Japanese farmer and learned to eat from the farm and cook by the seasons….. and so, so much more)