Grant Douglas's Garden Diary

Week 12: fourth week of March

A beautiful spell of Autumn weather we are having at the moment and with the heavy dews it is easy to get fooled by the amount of moisture around. Actually, for a lot of people the soil moisture level will by quite low, so keep up the irrigation, although probably less often.

Low soil moisture, and the resulting plant stress, will increase the prevalence of sap-sucking insects such as White Fly, Passionvine Hopper and Shield Bugs. Keep on top of these to get the most out of the late season crops. White Fly has a very quick life cycle, so if you are resorting to using an insecticide such as Pyrethram, you will have to spray approximately every three days, a couple of times, to break the cycle.

Spare ground may be coming available as crops come out so if the ground is not needed for Winter crops, get them sown down in cover crops for incorporating organic matter. It is still early enough to sow Lupins and get some growth out of them before the Winter. A good choice is a combination of Lupin, Oats and Italian Ryegrass - all available from CRT.

My preference is to turn under any existing crops in the soil in which they have been grown (but not badly diseased material e.g. blighted Tomatoes), thus returning a lot of the nutrients that the crop has taken out, rather than removing it and composting. For example, if you chop up your corn residue and mix it with the soil it has been grown in, sow a cover crop over it, by the Spring it will be mostly gone. Don't forget to leave some ground vacant for early Winter planting e.g. for Garlic.

Crops going in now, such as Brocolli, Cabbage, Cauli will not mature until Winter/Spring but don't let this put you off. Spring is a time when you really appreciate having these crops available.

If you are removing Tomato plants etc, from bags in the greenhouse, remember that with a little top-up of compost and blood and bone, these bags can be used to grow Lettuce, Spinach, and other leafy greens in the Greenhouse over Winter.

Sowing and/or Planting this week:
Brocoflower
Cabbage (Winter - I use Wintercross)
Cauliflower - Snowmarch - Winter variety (5 Mths).
Celery - to grow fast use heaps of Horse Manure
Lettuce - Loose-leaf Fancy and Hearting (Triumph)
Peas/Snap Peas - an Autumn Crop
Silverbeet and Perpetual Spinach
Spinach
Spring Onions
Sprouting Broccoli

Sow Direct:
Chinese Greens
Corn Salad
Corriander/Dill
Mescalin Mix
Rocket
Radish

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