Wednesday 7 December 2011

In the vegie patch

Spring is here and the time has come to get out your tools and get busy planting out your vegie garden. During August hopefully you dug your plot over and gave it a good does of lime, compost and manure. You would have removed all the weeds and it would be brimming with life just beneath the surface awaiting the summer crop.
Salad vegies are probably the first that spring to mind and a variety of small sowings would be suitable now. It’s better to sow a little at a time every few weeks to give a continuous and varied supply throughout the season, especially if you’re only feeding a few.

Plants to grow include: cabbage, capsicum, silverbeet, lettuce, spring onion, tomato.
Seeds to sow include: beetroot, carrot, cucumber, marrow, parsnip, pea, radish, sweetcorn, zucchini and pumpkin.

A few tips:
  • Cabbage: Sprinkle the outer leaves with Derris Dust to scare off white butterfly-one dusting usually does the trick.
  • Sweetcorn: Plant 2-3 rows or in a group as it is wind pollinated. Pick when the tassle is brown.
  • Carrot: Don’t manure prior to sowing as it causes deformed root growth.
  • Pumpkin: When the flowers are formed pinch off the leading shoots to promote clumping growth.
  • Cucumber: Sow amongst the Sweetcorn. They will use the spent corn stalks as a climbing frame.

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