Abundance in the Kitchen
Garden
You should be well into eating from your
garden this month – a reward for all the hard work you put in! Keep picking and eating your fresh produce and
keep sowing and planting to ensure a good long season. Be observant this month too for signs of
water stress – it’s better to give the ground a good deep watering once a week
than a lot of little sprinkles. Mulching
will continue to be important to keep the weeds at bay and keep any moisture in
the soil in.
Mound up potatoes and if you have access
to seaweed, mulch down the rows with seaweed, manure and straw. The beauty of
this is that once you have harvested those spuds, you can dig all that mulch
into the ground and the soil will love
you for it. There are so many good
things about mulching – it does its job for the season and is then dug into the
soil helping to create good structure and adding vital nutrients.
If you planted early enough you should have
some delicious new potatoes for Christmas – even if you have to bandicoot them
by reaching your hand into the row and pinching a few off the main plant,
leaving it to continue to grow. New potatoes are different to main crop ones in
that they are ready once they start to flower. Pink flowers indicates red
varieties and white flowers, white. Peas
traditionally make an appearance at Christmas as well with the oldest and the
youngest family members assigned the task of shelling the fesh peas.
There’s so much going on in the December
garden and it’s a busy time. Keep an eye on your plants to watch they don’t get
stressed by either too much or too little water. If you are away over Christmas think about
how you can manage the garden. Avoid having seedlings ready to be planted
during this time unless you can get them in. Ask a neighbour or a friend to
check on the garden in return for some of the harvest. Put pot plants into the
shade and make sure they have plenty of water.
Jobs for this Month
Sow:
Keep up succession sowing. Beans, carrots,
lettuces, Swedes, turnips, spinach, radishes etc.
Plant:
Cabbage, Cauli, corn, celery, leeks, lettuces, spinach, courgettes, pumpkins,
capsicums, chillies, tomatoes in a warm spot.
Stake:
beans and peas.
Cultivate:
Thin beetroot to 15 cm apart. Mound up main crop potatoes. Liquid manure green
and fruiting crops such as courgettes, tomatoes etc but hold off on roots and
tubers like garlic, onions and potatoes to allow them to start drying off.
Harvest:
Garlic – traditionally starts on the longest day (21st Dec). Stop
watering now and harvest when still 6 green leaves per plant. Pick peas and beans regularly to keep them
producing. Eat lots of lettuces, herbs, spinach, potatoes, asparagus (until
mid-Dec), strawberries and other soft fruits.
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