Grant Douglas's Garden Diary

Week 42: Fourth week of October

Time to go for it if you are in warm or moderate areas. For those of you who are in colder areas, you may want to hold off with the outside planting of tender plants such as Cucumbers or Tomatoes for another week or so, while everyone should probably hold off with such things as Melons, Kumeras and outside Basil a wee bit longer.

Don't forget to leave space in your garden for later successions and to feed the soil as you put in each crop. With the weather being so dry, most people will be doing some irrigation - early morning deep watering approximately every 5 to 7 days is better than a little bit every day.

For successful germination of Sweet Corn, Beans and Snow Peas, make sure the ground or potting mix is kept on the moderate to dry side.

Sowing or Planting this week:

Tomatoes, Peppers, Chillie's, Egg Plant
Basil (Don't plant outside yet if you are in a cooler area)
Beetroot
Beans - Scarlet, Runner (Shiney Fardenlosa), Dwarf (In punnets for planting out)
Brocolli Spouting (Marathon Variety)
Cabbage (Spring or Summer varieties)
Cauliflower (Frieda - Summer variety)
Celeriac (for transplanting or direct)
Cucumber - too early for planting outside, so sow in containers, or plant in greenhouse
Kohl Rabi
Leeks
Lettuce (Loose-leaf Fancy and Hearting (Webbs or Greatlakes)
Onions
Peas (I choose Easy-peasy variety)
Potatoes - keep a succession of plantings going
Pumpkin/Squash
Red Onions
Shallots
Silverbeet and Perpetual Spinach
Snow Peas (Snap Peas)
Spinach (winter varieties eg. Hybrid No.7)
Spring Onions
Sweet Corn (sown in punnets for planting out later)
Watermelon/Rockmelon (Sow in containers for planting out later)
Yams (Sprout ready for planting soon)
Zuchini - planting outside in warmer areas. Protect at night.

Sow Direct: (Protect soil surface from heavy rains)

Carrots - I find Topweight a good early variety
Chinese Greens and Cabbage
Corn Salad
Corriander/Dill
Mescalin Mix
Parsnips
Rocket
Radish

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