It’s
still winter with the promise of more cold conditions to come so don’t be
fooled by the occasional warm springlike days we will get this month. They do
get the sap rising in both gardener and garden alike though so it is okay to
get excited about the new season. The
more you can tend your soil at this end of the season the more successful your
vegetable beds will be. Get in and dig over your beds, removing any
perennial weeds such as dock and couch, add plenty of manure and compost, dig
in green crops, turn over winter mulches, add blood and bone and depending on
what you plan to grow, some lime. Leave
the beds to settle and for the earthworms and all the microorganisms in a
healthy soil to do their work. Check the
Crop Rotation plan for specific treatment of each bed for the season.
In the
meantime get yourself prepared for when spring fever hits in force. Clean and
tidy your potting shed. Recycle your old seed trays by washing in a 1/10 bleach
solution. Clean and sharpen tools, buy some seed raising mix and get your seeds
ready for planting. You still have time to order online from Kings Seeds or
just purchase from your local nursery. Get the whole family to work out the
plan of what to eat and when and make your plan. My useful backyard vege garden poster will be
very helpful with this.
Potatoes
are the veges I start thinking about this month and you can now set out seed
for chitting. That’s just an old
fashioned way of saying “sprouting” and in effect you are pre-sprouting the
tuber to get a jump on the season. Warm
up the ground from now on with frost cloth or black polythene or whatever you
have available while you wait until the weather warms up a bit. Potatoes are
subtropical so don’t like frost at all which is why they are not usually
planted until threat of frost has passed.
I use old egg cartons and put the end with the “eye” looking up at the
top then pop in a warm light place to get them started.
The
other stars of the month will be broad beans and peas. Broad beans, unlike the French or bush
varieties, prefer cool soil and will germinate at low temperatures so you can
put them in now. As I am moving into
Year 2 of the crop rotation cycle this new planting will be going into Bed 2
into the bed where I last had my root crops. This means that you will still
have beans in Bed 1 that you sowed in autumn. They will still be working their
nitrogen magic so leave them unless you grew them for a green crop, in which
case now’s the time to chop them off and dig into the top layer of soil. If you are planning on eating them then keep
up the feeding. Pinch out the tops to
encourage bushing. Add the tips to
winter salads.
Jobs for this Month
Sow. Globe
artichoke, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, cauli, silverbeet, spinach, turnip –
all can be sown in trays in a warm sheltered position. Sow broad beans, peas, coriander
direct into ground. Sow indoors; artichoke, celery, lettuce, leeks. Sow herbs
like coriander, parsley and thyme.
Plant:
Garlic can still go in.
Cultivate:
Weed and fertilise around growing plants.
Harvest:
Silverbeet, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, leeks, parsnips, winter lettuce and
mizuna.
Prepare:
Beds for asparagus plants, rhubarb and your potting bench for spring sowing.
Flowers;
I like to mix up flowers with veges particularly the cheerful ones that attract
beneficial insects. That way you get a gorgeous looking garden and make the
lives of the little creatures so necessary to good natural gardening so important.
This time of the year you can sow
Zinnia, marigolds, calendula, pansies, poppies, cosmos.
Herbs;
Parsley, coriander, tansey,
Pruning:
time to prune roses and hydrangeas.
