Grant Douglas's Garden Diary

Week 7: third week of February

Certainly been a beautiful few days. If you are aiming for a year round supply of vegetables, now is the most crowded time in the garden. Summer crops are still doing their thing and in fact you may have successions of some things going at the same time eg Beans, Corn. The winter crops for storage are maturing, Root Crops, Onions, Pumkins and the Winter Greens and Carrots, Beetroot and Leeks are coming on. Also you need to be leaving room for further winter-maturing plantings of Brassicas, Lettuce, etc.

Now is the time that you can also start thinking about sowing Chinese Greens (best sown direct to avoid bolting) and Winter Spinach (I recommend Hybrid No.7 as a very good variety). With all the preparation for Winter crops it is easy to overlook the maintenance of the Summer crops, but to prolong harvesting of Beans, Tomatoes, Cucumber, etc, it is important to keep them clean of weeds and pests and well-watered and fed. This will make a huge difference on how long they will keep producing into the Autumn.

If our place is anything to go by, there is a white butterfly population peak at the moment, so keep them well under control (Bacillus - mentioned in an earlier diary) or your Brassicas will be devastated. Also common in many properties at the moment (although not here) are sheild bugs (stink-bug) and passion vine hoppers. These are especially damaging to Beans. (Sheild bugs causing the distortion or the shrivelling of beans and Hoppers leading to the formation of honey-dew and sooty-mould) I use Pyrethrum to control these. Spray individual insects, not a general cover to avoid harming individual insects.

Sowing or Planting this week:
Basil (for later greenhouse production)
Beans (for green house production)
Brassicas - Cauli, Cabbage, Broccoli, Broccoflower, Brussel sprouts (plants only), Borecole (kale), Brocoflower (remember to choose winter varieties of these brassicas eg Wintercross Cabbage, Snowmarch Cauliflower)
Celery (plants only)
Lettuce
Parsley
Perpetual Spinach
Silverbeet
Spinach (winter varieties)
Spring Onions

Sow Direct:
Carrots (last time for winter)
Chinese Cabbage and other Chinese Greens
Coriander
Dill
Mescalin Mix
Radish
Rocket

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