Preparing Your Winter Vegie Garden

Autumn is the ideal time to get back out into the vegie garden. Summer vegies should just about be finished so think hearty soups and stews and get planting!

Goodbye Summer

Pull out what is remaining of your summer vegies. If the tomatoes are still green, make them into pickles and chutneys; or hang the whole bush, roots and all, upside down in a sheltered spot outside. The tomatoes will gradually ripen.

Gather all of the stalks and remains and make a compost heap; or chop up as finely as you can be bothered and add them to your compost bin. However, if they were diseased, it is best to put them out with your garden waste. If you have chooks, tractor them over the vegie beds and they will clear up any weeds and insects lurking in them.

Rejuvenating Soils

Remember that vegies need a rich and nourishing soil. Feed it up by adding animal manures and composts and lightly rake it through. Many winter crops, especially the brassicas and legumes like a sweet soil. Add lime (or dolomite lime for added magnesium) at a rate of a handful per square metre to sweeten the soil. Allow a few weeks after feeding and sweetening the soil before planting again.

Sunshine

Winter vegies, by their nature, don't need as many hours of sunshine as do the summer crops; but they still do need some. If your vegie garden becomes completely shaded over by the lower sun in the sky, you will need to grow your vegies in large pots in a sunnier spot instead. Don't let the shaded patch lie fallow (empty) though; sow a Green Manure crop instead.

Crop Rotation

It is important for many crop types not to be grown in the same bed year after year, to avoid build up of disease in that spot. Even if you only have a small patch, rotate the few plant types you do grow so there is a break of at least 3 years before the same thing is planted over the same spot.

After your tomatoes, feed and lime your bed to put in leafy vegies, including the brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, brussel sprouts). Root vegies, such as beetroot and carrots, will like this area next season after the brassicas.

Seeds or Seedlings?

How much time do you have? If you are pressed for time and have left it a bit late, seedlings are the way to go. If you prefer a bit more variety than is available as seedlings, go for seeds. Many plants do much better if they are sowed directly into the soil where they will stay. Others you could grow in punnets and then, when they are strong enough to fend for themselves, you transplant them as you would a usual punnet. This is known as indirect sowing.

Pest Control

The cooler weather means fewer pests but there still are a few about. The most destructive of these would be the Cabbage White Butterfly larvae, known to chomp their way through brassica leaves overnight, leaving only a stalk behind; and slugs and snails. Grey aphids can also make their presence felt. With all of these pests, try manual measures to remove them (squashing them!), or creating a physical barrier around your precious plants before reaching for the chemical alternatives. That said, there are safer chemical alternatives available.

Watering

Keep the plant sites moist but not too wet and make sure the areas drain well in cases of a heavy downpour. Roots could rot through overwatering. As always, check before watering - is the soil moist already?

Fertilising

Keep the vegies growing strongly by regular fertilising. A liquid feed every 2 to 6 weeks should be adequate. If you are using a formulated fertiliser, follow the dosage rates as outlined on the packaging. A compost or other liquid tea can be given more regularly.

Mulching

Is not as critical in winter as in summer, but it still does help to keep weeds down. Mulching will also keep an already warm soil that way for longer, helping roots get established; but may need to be pulled aside with the approach of warmer weather to allow it to warm up again.

Flowers

A spot of colour throughout the garden is always welcome, especially through winter. Brighten up your vegie patch with seedlings of Viola, Calendula, Alyssum and Pansies. They will grow and flower over winter, some have edible petals or attract beneficial insects to the garden, to keep the nasties away. Other pretty flowerers over winter include Rosemary and Winter Lace Lavender.

Easy-to-Grow Autumn Winter Vegies

Legumes: Peas and Snowpeas; Broadbeans

Leafy: Parsley, Silverbeet,

Hungry Leafy: Rocket, Lettuce, Spinach

Root Crops: Spring Onions, Potatoes (from mid-winter), Garlic, Onions

More Tricky to Grow Autumn Winter Vegies

Hungry Leafy: Celery

Brassicas: Cauliflower, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Bok Choi, Cabbage

Root Crops: Carrots, Beetroot

Some Unusual and Ornamental Crops (all edible)

Ruby Red Brussel Sprouts, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Romanesco Broccoli, Purple Cauliflower, Red Cabbage, Giant Red Mustard, Ruby/Golden/Rainbow Chard, Radicchio, Crimson Broadbeans, Rainbow Beetroot, Rainbow Carrots

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