The end of our golden weather. Wasn’t May a stunning month this year!
Our first lot of carrots are big enough now to weed around and thin out. I hilled them up a bit as the thinning process can leave the remaining ones a bit exposed.
Beetroot are all planted out too. Bit horizontal from all the recent rain, but they’ll pull away.
I’ve got our new little silverbeets in to get us through winter and early spring. Other good leafy greens for winter are perpetual spinach, rocket and mizuna.
I’m planting broad bean seedlings at our community garden for both the beans and then, after harvest, to chop back and work into the soil as a green manure crop. This variety is Coles Prolific from Kings Seeds.
And it’s mustard seed I’m using at our place as a green manure crop. I keep a crop rotation plan and make sure it’s a different bed each winter that gets the benefit of a green manure crop. Netting the bed is absolutely essential to keep birds out.
I didn’t prune our passionfruit back last year which was a mistake, so it’s been a nil fruiting year this year, with loads of dead wood on the top. So this year it’s had a good cleanup. All dead wood off and back to main leaders. Try and keep the height to where you chop them back uniform, so the plant grows evenly. Even if you’ve got lots of foliage on your vine, it’ll benefit from a good cut back. In spring I’ll give my vine some handfuls of sulphate of potash for good fruiting.
Rob is covering his unused garden beds this year so if you too have beds you’re not going to use this winter, he recommends layering something like chicken manure or sheep pellets and an application of gypsum which adds calcium to the soil (particularly good for summer fruiting vegetables) before covering with weed matting or cardboard. This gives the worms and other soil life a chance to enhance your soil while protecting it from the winter elements.
And lastly, this month is a good time to get your seed box out, check expiry dates and order in new seeds for spring and summer sowing. And keep an eye out for your favourite seed potatoes. We’ll start chitting them next month, and often they sell out quickly.
Keep healthy and warm!
From Jan and Rob 💚
4 Responses
Thanks as always Jan, and a very happy wintering to you and Rob. 🙂
Thanks Kate 😊
Thanks Jan.
What did you use to hill up the carrots? Just compost?
Oh just the soil on either side of the rows, using my hands. Just like you hill up the brassicas, leeks etc with the existing soil 😊