July 2021 Kitchen garden Guide

 

Whether or not we realise it in our heads, our bodies respond to the seasons. The best thing we can do for our health is to eat what grows in the season and in the ground where we are. In my garden, ready to eat right now are some brassicas, leeks, parsley, coriander, daikon radish, baby parsnips and a variety of magnificent leafy greens for eating raw and cooked. I have pumpkins on the shelf, garlic in a basket, potatoes in a box, pickles in jars, dried beans in the pantry, daily eggs from the chooks, apples in the fridge plus local celeriac and carrots in the fridge too. It is a rhythm that brings not just food but also security, in these times of uncertainty and change.

Tomatoes

It is time to get yourself ready to sow tomatoes. Sow later in July or into early August.

1.   Check your seeds and buy more if needs be. My favourites for Cygnet are: Black from Tula (big, black, solid, luscious, delicious and surprisingly reliable), Rouge de Marmande (medium, reliable, long season), Jaune Flammé (orange, medium to smallish, delicious, very prolific, long season).

2.   I use hiko seed trays because they are deep and solid so the seedlings are happy in them for quite  while.

3.   Tomatoes really do need bottom heat for good germination. Use a brewer’s mat or terrarium mat or silicone terrarium tube or lash out on a heated seed raising kit.

4.   Covering the seed tray with a sheet of glass or perspex before germination keeps moisture in and rodents out.

5.   Once germinated, they need LOTS of sun plus the heat mat. Water sparingly. Use warm water. Water with a weak liquid feed every couple of weeks.

6.   Pay attention to how they look. Spindly = need more sun. Yellow = too much water. Not growing = need more warmth or food.

7.   For more details check out “Dave’s Seed” website.

Wildlife

The joy we all find when we see wallabies, pademelons, bandicoots, quolls and friendly possums whilst bushwalking soon turns to despair when everything we plant in our gardens ends up in their stomachs and not ours!

Vertical Corrugated iron: possums cannot climb it, wallabies do not jump it, rabbits seem not to burrow under it, if it goes down below soil level. It can be painted and decorated or left plain. The heat reflected by it will warm your plants.

Floppy, arched wire: Having a top to the fence, of arched chicken wire, will keep out the wildlife, if you are diligent about securing gaps around the corners and the gate and the bottom!

Wire mesh (not for possums): I buy 900mm high x 50mm wire mesh in a roll and run this around areas I want to protect, using droppers (star pickets) and adding tent pegs between the droppers so the wallabies cannot get under. Plants with tendrils, like cucumbers, can also make use of this and I successfully trained one pumpkin leader along a rung about halfway up the fence last year.

Electric netting: A fool proof but more expensive option, which is available with a solar power and battery option. You need to keep the bottom free from grass and weeds which may short circuit the wiring.

Free events and groups

The next Cygnet Garden Market will be on Saturday November 13th at The Cannery. Again, it will be a community fundraiser for refugees. I am looking for enthusiasts (rather than experts) who would share their passion for 20 minutes, on any topic related to gardening, for our rolling demonstrations on the day. You may promote your stall or business too. Please contact me at katevag@gmail.com

The Cygnet Seed Library meets every second Sunday at 2pm at Oura Oura House. Please do join us and enjoy our monthly gardening workshops. The dates and details are on our website and facebook page. We provide free seeds to any locals, grown and saved by locals. You can find the seed box at Oura Oura House.

Crop Swap Cygnet and Surrounds can be found on facebook and at our monthly gatherings. All the details are on facebook and everyone is welcome to join in. We give/swap/share anything to do with food, not just garden produce! To be on our email list, contact me at katevag@gmail.com if you don’t do facebook.

The Nature Journal Club an amazing facebook group for people wanting to learn how to capture the world around us, in art.

 

Winter reading

Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard

Milkwood: Real skills for down-to-earth living by Kirsten Bradley and Nick Ritar

Japanese Farm Food by Nancy Singleton Hachisu

Eat Wild Tasmanian by Rees Campbell

 

Sow in July

Sow now in the frosty garden: Onions (Creamgold, Domenica Sweet), leeks, broad beans, tic bean green manure

Sow now in the hothouse in trays to plant out asap or outside in frost free areas: Coriander, miners’ lettuce, spring onions, Asian veg, lettuce, bok choy, sugar snap peas, lettuce,

Sow now to transplant in spring: Broccoli varieties such as summer purple- sprouting and raab, red cabbage, kales, tomatoes (later in July).

July jobs

·         Get started on making fermented compost or bokashi compost.

·         Plant asparagus crowns, cut off old asparagus stalks and add seaweed and compost

·         Divide and replant clumps of chives and other perennial onions, rhubarb, strawberries, sunchokes and mint

·         Plant out deciduous trees and shrubs, bare-rooted fruit trees, cane fruits and grape vines.

·         Sort your seeds for the coming season

·         Get your favourite tomato seeds before they are sold out. Sow later in July.

Collect black olives and pickle as below......