Autumn…. a welcome relief in the vegetable garden

Carrot and lettuce in seed for saving.

Autumn is my favourite time in the garden, I can stay outside all day on the weekends digging,weeding, planning and planting, still with a hat on but I don’t have to worry about getting sun-burnt even with sunscreen on!

What I am harvesting from the garden in March:

• still getting a few roma tomatoes
• cucumbers, my favourite is the mini muncher
• bush beans
• capsicums
• eggplant – it has just started producing
• rhubarb
• beetroot
• herbs – basil sweet & thai, oregano,thyme,rosemary,mint
• chillies

cucumber

Seeds I have planted:

• Broccoli –  red spouting, De Cicco
• Mini cabbage
• Lettuce – freckles & heirloom mix & cos
• Peas – purple podded dutch pea
• spinach – bloomsdale
• carrots
• Pak choy
• Poppies
• Primula
• beans – sun baby, sex without strings – description from an old seed catalogue reads

“sensuous and tender, the golden curves of this dwarf butter bean are available to all –  with no strings attached.”

To do this month:

• Remove some Kikuyu from 2 beds for autumn planting
• Add compost to the beds
• Add some lime to the beds for the brassicas
• Do a summer/autumn prune of the fruit trees

Beds for de-grassing

Perfect time for carrots!

Carrots sown now make good growth and slow down in winter so they can be harvested a few at a time.  Two things to remember about carrots:

• They love light sandy soils
• Spread Complete ‘D’ in shallow holes 5cm away from where you have planted them about four weeks after seedlings appear, not at sowing time as high nutrients at germination causes the roots to fork.

Thanks to Malcolm Campbell from 891 talk back gardening Sunday morning for that tip!

I hope that you have had an amazing Summer in the garden and are ready to welcome Autumn. How is your garden going this month?