Your Cart is Empty
It’s been a fabulous growing season!
After a very dry spring, January started with rain, and it has continued to be a pretty perfect summer for veggies.
Right now, while you’re sweating through the humidity to keep up with the weeding and mowing, you also need to be planning for winter.
Brassica seedlings can go in now for a late autumn and winter harvest. You can plant a second rotation in April for spring harvest. Protect from cabbage moth if necessary, with exclusion netting, though I haven’t seen so many around the last few weeks.
You may just squeeze another crop of beans and definitely sow your snow pea and sugar snap seed now. Field peas too if you have room.
Salad greens of course - make sure the seed bed stays moist on the hot days.
Coriander will be perfect as will English spinach and silver beet. Radish will be ready in 5 weeks from seed.
Carrot and beetroot will germinate quickly and can overwinter in the beds. Cover your seed bed with hessian or shade cloth to keep it damp and improve germination.
Beetroot will germinate a couple of days before carrot if sown at the same time. Both these crops need a weed free bed and well-prepared soil without a heap of nitrogen. Soak your beetroot seed overnight before sowing in a bowl of water with a pinch of borax to improve germination and prevent hollow beets.
Feed your beds with compost or a good quality organic pelletised fertiliser and remember to check pH and adjust as necessary. Sow on a cover crop in the beds which will not be used over the winter, or top them up with compost, cover with newspaper or cardboard and then cover with lucerne hay so they will be fed and rested and ready to plant in spring.
You may just fit in another burst of sunflowers as well if you sow them now.
Don’t forget to water and weed!
July in the garden is time for observation, organising and planning for the season ahead.
The SAGE committee and its various sub committees and working groups have been actively growing SAGE for 16 years. Many SAGE members have stepped up and contributed over the years and with the AGM due on 20 September, you might like to consider if it’s time for you to ‘take a turn’. Read on to find out more about volunteering on a SAGE committee.
Nicole Mensinga, SAGE member and Acupuncturist at Healing Hands Moruya offers some warming tips to support your body, mind, and garden this winter season.
