Spring
has officially arrived and with it the start of the gardener’s New Year. Time to get sowing and planting. Just
watch out though – spring may be in the air but it won’t necessarily have made
it into the soil yet. In the
meantime start seeds under cover so you will be ready to plant when the
conditions are right.
This
is a good time to get your garden beds planned for good crop rotation. There
are lots of good reasons to follow this age old practice. Grouping families of
plants together in one bed with similar cultivation needs means it is easier
for you to prepare the beds to suit that crop. It also breaks the cycles of pests and diseases that can
occur if you plant the same crop in the same place year after year. If you kept
doing that you would also deplete the soil of the nutrients that family of
plants needs. Different plants
access food from different depths of the soil. Tap roots for example will dig
deep and access nutrition that say shallow rooted plants like tomatoes or
lettuces won’t. An easy crop rotation plan to follow
will be to divide your main annual beds into four and every year move the crop to the next bed in a clockwise
way
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1.Legumes: Peas and
Beans
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4. Root Crops: eg carrots
Potatoes, onions
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2.Leafy:eg Lettuces,
Brassicas, silverbeet
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3. Fruiting & Heat loving
eg tomatoes, pumpkins
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Jobs for this Month
Sow
direct into warm spot: carrots, parsnips, beetroot (early crop) potatoes,
onions, lettuce, peas, parsley. Brussels sprouts
Sow
indoors in trays for planting out later: leeks, celery, corn, beans, pumpkin,
marrow, cucumber,
Plant:
Potatoes, cabbages, caulis, lettuces, parsley, silverbeet
Cultivate:
Any crops that have come through winter such as broad beans, brassicas,
silverbeet and garlic will all benefit from a weekly application of liquid
feed. Keep asparagus plots clear
of weeds and start applying liquid fertiliser once new growth appears. If your
rhubarb is putting up seed heads cut them off. Keep hoeing soil between rows to
keep weeds down of mulch between rows.
Harvest:
Cabbages, broccoli, silverbeet, parsley, broad beans, asparagus.