June 2021 Kitchen Garden Guide

I adore the feel of really crisp air on my face; the white air we get here on a very frosty, early morning dash to bring in more firewood, that makes your cheeks glow and covers your hair in fine droplets.

Gardening in the cold is a challenge, as gloves get wet, fingers go numb and too much clothing makes jobs awkward. However, if the sun is out, even a very cold day becomes glorious and a few minutes pruning or doing other outdoor work warms your insides as nothing else can. It is a tonic. As you rest on your spade, close your eyes, face the sun and let the rays activate the capillaries beneath your eyelids.

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 pesto with chervil and almonds / rocket 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 and are perfect for pesto. 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. Stinging nettles are a favourite of mine, mixed half and half with another herb in my pesto. 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 oranges are rare in our gardens.

Trellises

Basically, there are 3 types of climbing vegetables and now is the time to get your garden set up to cater for them for spring planting:

·         Using tendrils (cucumbers, peas, tromboncinos, some pumpkins)

·         Twining (beans)

·         Scrambling (tomatoes, some pumpkins)

Tendrils are like little hands reaching out from the main plant to grab onto something to climb up. They prefer a natural material, like bamboo or jute twine or thin wood. They need a rough surface, so they will slip on shiny metal but I find they are happy on my rougher, galvanised fence. I have even successfully grown peas amongst my raspberries, which saves garden space too. You can even make a strong structure with droppers (for the wind) then simply wind twine around and around.

Tromboncinos and small pumpkins do really well on a sloping trellis. Their tendrils are remarkably strong and you can grow lettuce or other semi shade lovers underneath.

Twiners like beans wrap themselves around anything they touch, as they reach ever upwards. They will twine up just about anything vertical but it needs to be quite fine. They cannot stretch out and around a slat trellis, for example. Climbing beans are usually surprisingly tall so make sure you provide at least 2m. My bean frame is 1.8m and the beans scramble all over the place when they get to the top. It seems that the birds are good at nipping off the excess growth, which is fine by me.

Scramblers don’t grab on to a frame but enjoy the support given by one, to prevent their stems bending and breaking under the weight of ripe fruit. For tomatoes, I cut 1.5m x 50mm wire into 750mm lengths which I bend and join into circles. Large pumpkins will scramble over an elevated frame, or along a wire fence, just above the ground if you help it along.

Garlic

This year I have been staggering my planting of early and mid-season garlic in 1 square meter blocks, dotted about my garden, from April. June is a fine time to plant out late season garlics, like dungansky. This way, I get each patch maturing separately, making space for the next thing I want to grow. 

Magnesium

As the sun dips low in the sky and the temperatures drop, plants are relying on their strength to remain healthy, just as we do. Problems become evident quite quickly sometimes, especially in pots. My citrus, in big, concrete pots on my sunny verandah, are laden with fruit. Their leaves have been green and fruits growing well but I can see signs of yellowing of some older leaves, which could be a sign that a dose of magnesium might help. Purple, red or brown may also appear on the leaves of other plants. We all need magnesium and if our plants are short of it then we who eat the plants will be short of it too. It is vital for photosynthesis, which obviously happens less on these short days, which is why it raises its head now.

Add about 3 tablespoons of Epsom salts to a 9 litre watering can, stir well to completely dissolve, then water the root zone. For pots, you can also mix into a spray bottle and spray the leaves. Repeat as required. It is a gentle remedy.

The name comes from its discovery, bubbling up in ponds in the English town of Epsom, in the 1600’s. Farmers noticed that wounds of cows that waded through the bitter tasting water healed quickly. Many people in England began to travel to Epsom to experience the numerous health benefits, particularly the relief from the painful symptoms of gout and for the natural purging effects of the water.

Tasmania is surrounded by sea and we are now learning to forage the shores and shallows for food. As a longer term strategy, magnesium can be added to the soil simply by adding seaweeds to your compost or by using a seaweed liquid feed. Magnesium can be added to your diet more directly by eating the seaweed yourself. All of the longest lived peoples of the world eat many different sea plants; think Okinawa (Japan) and Sicily.

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: coriander, chervil etc Winter flowering annuals Globe artichokes Bulbs Asian greens Lettuce Spinach Winter Reading Wild Mushrooming: A Guide for Foragers (Australian)   The Seed Garden:The Art and Practice of Seed Saving