Grant Douglas's Garden Diary

Week 9: first week of March

Still warm days, so plenty of growth happening, as long as you can keep the food and water up to your plants. The soil is very dry so don't slacken off the watering, but, with the days growing shorter, you probably will not need to water quite so often.

With the extension of daylight saving and the long evenings, it is easy to get lulled into a sense that the days are long but actually they have shortened quite a lot already. This is important when you are thinking of your winter/spring garden as the low angle of the sun means that any plantings at the northern end of your garden should not end up being shaded by buildings, trees, etc to the north.

This is also the time of year when Powdery Mildew may start on your Cucumber, Zuchinni, Pumpkin. Personally because its late in the season, I don't worry too much about it, apart from picking off infected leaves. You can spray for it using Flour of Sulphur or I have seen it recommended, a spray made from Milk Powder.

The end of one of my large zuchinni plants broke off this week (it won't re-grow). A good reason to have a succession of plants coming on as the smaller plants tend to not break so easily.

Hope you have all been ignoring my planting list and have got your leeks in as I had forgotton to include it in the planting list lately. Probably getting a bit late to get leeks to size up well for the winter.

Sowing or Planting this week:
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 (If you can get hold of seed of a carrot variety called Spring Market Improved, they can be sown now and into the Autumn for spring production - they are not a particularly good colour, but are very slow bolting)
Chinese Cabbage and other Chinese Greens
Mescalin Mix
Radish
Rocket

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