Feb 2021 Kitchen Garden Guide

 

I have been gardening all summer. In fact, I have been gardening solidly for a whole year, without going away anywhere at all. Such was 2020! But, last weekend I stayed at Triabunna and went to the Spring Bay Mill Sunflower Festival. Marcus Ragus, who I would claim to be Tasmania’s leading horticulturalist, has been in charge of creating a 4 hectare food garden down by the sea, on part of the old Triabunna Wood Mill site, which is 42 hectares in total. He will also be creating more gardens and doing bush rehabilitation on another 30 hectares or so.

It was from Marcus that I first learnt about the deep hay method of gardening, as a means of raising fertility, getting rid of twitch etc, improving biodiversity and feeding the microbes. The Spring Bay food garden is run totally on this method and you ought to see the results, in just 2 years! I came away re-inspired to follow my passion for the largely self-sown, mostly deep hay, biodiverse, food gardening system. It was truly wonderful to spend all day wandering the gardens and listening to Marcus Ragus, Tino Carnevale and Angus Stewart filling the heads and hearts of a few hundred gardeners with their knowledge. There were also walks and talks and demonstrations of making fermented compost, gardening with all sorts of bees and hives, and plenty more.

Roots, Weeds and Paths

Roots are doing amazing things down under the surface; even more than I realised. Roots are dealing with all the microbes, worms, fungi, bacteria and air while growing through the soil. Some roots are actually benefitting all the other plants in their vicinity too. Mulberries and sunflowers are two such plants. That was part of the reason for a sunflower festival; to highlight not just their beauty but their usefulness growing amongst the vegetables and herbs. Plants that grow near sunflowers and mulberries benefit from this association. I have noticed that everything growing near and under my mulberry tree is so healthy and lush and now I know why. At Spring Bay, sunflowers are everywhere and they have planted a whole semi-circle of mulberries on the edge of a large, curved bed.

When most annual vegetables and herbs finish producing, I just cut them at ground level and leaves the roots to dissolve back into the ground. For sunflowers you can leave the strong stem in the ground and, if you have a clump of them, they can be used in-situ as next spring’s pea poles. Planting brassicas amongst the sunflowers in late summer, as they begin to die back, can help confuse the cabbage moths….. perfect!

In spring and summer the paths in the vegetable garden are where I toss most of the weeds and finishing vegetable debris, including old sunflower leaves. (Or I just lay some on the garden surface, if the weeds don’t have seeds.) As I tread it all down on the paths, it all goes back into the soil. Eventually, during winter and early spring, I scoop up all the resulting compost with my spade and put it back on the garden, ready to start again. Thick stems on the paths can get be treacherous so they get tossed amongst the shrubbery and trees, to rot away slowly.

Biodiversity

If you go into a forest or walk by the sea or a river, or, in fact, anywhere in its natural habitat, you will see that plants live together; you won’t see one plant here, one plant there, with space and bare soil all around, so I am not sure why people plant vegetables like this! The Spring Bay garden and my garden are packed with plants; tall ones, young ones, flowering ones, old ones, climbing ones and creeping ones all together. There are bees and insects doing all the work, so we never have problems to deal with. Marcus even plants grasses, especially barley, in clumps in the vegetable garden beds because grasses do such good….. but I tell you now, I have grasses in my garden that I would LOVE to get rid of. Some grasses are definitely better than others!

If you want to improve your gut health, you need to eat as much variety of food plants as you can. Having a biodiverse garden is a great way to ensure you and your environment are healthy. Your garden becomes a place to forage and nibble.

Cygnet Seed Library launch party

The Cygnet Seed Library will be set up on the verandah of Oura Oura House and will contain locally saved seeds for you, the community, for free. To find out more, please do come to our launch party at Oura Oura House from 6pm – 9pm, this Friday, Feb. 5^th. There will be seed saving demos, chats about seeds and some lawn games!

Side dressing time

Side dressing means a supplementary feed once the plants are well established. A good thing to do for hungry plants in our short summer season to keep them powering along before the weather changes.  Now is a good time to side dress fruit producing vegetables, such as tomatoes, zucchinis, pumpkins, capsicums and eggplants (if you are clever enough to grow them here). A dose of potash, well watered-in with a watering can of fish fertiliser (preferably the one that uses carp, which is a pest fish in the Murray River) and seaweed extract is my recommendation.

Early February is the last chance to feed your citrus because new growth stimulated to grow later, when autumn is approaching, will result in the tips being burnt off, even if the plants are in a sheltered place, simply because of the cold on tender citrus shoots. I use the carp fish fertiliser.

Seeds to sow in Feb. Broccoli raab Kale Beetroot Shungiku Lettuce Asian greens (late Feb.) Carrots Spinach & silver beet Spring onions Leeks Hakurei turnips Tas. swedes Parsnips Radishes Seeds to save in Feb Lettuce Shungiku Calendular marigolds Tomatoes

Plant out /pot up now, yes now Brussel sprouts Cauliflower Broccoli – regular, sprouting and raab Salad vegetables Leeks   Jobs for February Plant, feed or move citrus Summer prune stone fruits Prepare beds for autumn plantings Save seeds for next spring Mulch with wet straw/silage Give flowering veg a dose of potash   Preserve, cook, nourish

February 2018 Kitchen Garden Guide

Today, 800 million people around the globe are engaged in urban agriculture, which can produce up to 15 times more food than a rural plot of the same size, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. In addition, the FAO notes, urban farming “generates employment, recycles urban wastes, creates greenbelts, and strengthens cities’ resilience to climate change.”

Not only that, but doing something productive like growing some of your own food is satisfying and getting your hands into the soil can bring a glow to your cheeks, microbes to your gut and consequently a smile to your whole body!

Did you know that Australia has the longest history of food growing in the world? I recently read an eye-opening book called Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe, about how the Aboriginal peoples of Australia were not just hunters and gatherers but also successful, innovative farmers; saving and sowing seeds, dividing roots and making extraordinarily complex fish traps way before any other civilization on earth. You may have seen Bruce Pascoe on Gardening Australia’s first show for the year, last week.

Pear and cherry slug

If you see tiny little black ‘worms’ on the leaves of your pears, cherries, quinces and even plums and the leaves are turning brown and crisp, you have this slug. A simple control is to spray the entire tree with a mist of water then throw ash or lime all over it. Do this a couple of times and they will be desiccated. Try to stand up-wind!

Watering tips

Yes it is lovely to stand about and day dream while spraying water with a hose, over the leaves of hot, dry plants. I do it often but it benefits mostly me, not the plants, as water needs to soak all the way down (and out) to the root tips, which may be 20cms below the surface and at least the same out from the stem.

1. Buy a rose (ie a hose fitting) that cascades like a watering can head and simply adjusts the flow by turning the head or operating a lever with your thumb. I bought mine from Bunnings. Never use a gun style or those dreadful ones that only change the shape of the jet. I think people who design watering attachments should have to be gardeners!
2. For hand watering in the garden, water each plant for a few minutes. What I do is walk around the garden beds several times because it is quite hard to stand still and water one plant for very long!
3. Use a sprinkler, if you are on town or dam water or have another plentiful supply. Leave it on for an hour. Reduce the frequency of your watering. The roots will grow deeper and withstand much hotter weather.
4. Use a deep hay mulch, lightly shaken over the soil. The water will penetrate and not just water the roots but also keep the microbes happy where the hay meets the soil.
5. For my tomatoes, which can suffer with diseases if watered overhead, I have installed a line of 13mm irrigation pipe and inserted finger drippers between each tomato plant. These have adjustable little knobs that distribute water out to the size of a spread hand, like fingers. I attach a hose once a week and leave it on for at least an hour. This way every tomato plant receives a deep watering over both sides, a good 30cms or more from the stem. As the plants mature and when the weather is cooler, they need less water. This is also good for cucumbers and zucchinis which prefer not to be watered on the leaves too much.
6. Group plants together that have similar water requirements.

Side dressing time

Side dressing means a supplementary feed once the plants are well established. A good thing to do for hungry plants in our short summer season to keep them powering along before the weather changes.  Now is a good time to side dress fruit producing vegetables, such as tomatoes, zucchinis, pumpkins, capsicums and eggplants (if you are clever enough to grow them here). A dose of potash, well watered-in with a watering can of fish fertiliser (preferably the one that uses carp which is a nasty pest fish in the Murray River) and seaweed extract is my recommendation.

Early February is the last chance to feed your citrus because new growth stimulated to grow later, when autumn is approaching, will result in the tips being burnt off, even if the plants are in a sheltered place, simply because of the cold on tender citrus shoots. I use poultry pellets and the carp fish fertiliser.

Seeds to sow now Broccoli raab Kale Beetroot Shungiku Lettuce Asian greens (late Feb.) Carrots Spinach & silver beet Spring onions Hakurei turnips Tas. swedes Parsnips Radishes

Plant out now, yes now, or before! Brussel sprouts Cauliflower Broccoli – regular, sprouting and raab Lettuce   Jobs for February Plant or move citrus Summer prune stone fruits Prepare beds for autumn plantings Save seeds for next spring Give pots and the veg. garden some seaweed and fish liquid feed in a hosable spray.

 

Books of the month Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe The Mix and Match Guide to Companion Planting by Josie Jeffery Australian Herbal by Penny Woodward