Summer harvest, Winter planting

Apr 04, 2011by Farmer Liz

This weekend I harvested the last of the tomatoes and pulled out the plants. I still have heaps of beans and squash, so I've left them in the ground for now, but its time to start thinking about winter. The main crops for winter here are broccoli (too humid in summer, too many bugs!), silver beet and peas.

The last of the tomatoes and one giant button squash!

giant button squash, oops! Still ok to eat, but large seeds aren't so nice!

My yellow button squash is still going,
this is the correct size for buttons!

Curcubits are taking over the garden! This is a "winter squash"
so I have to wait for the squash to ripen before picking them

Winter squash (I think!), not sure what it will be like, this is a new one for me!

I've cheated and bought some pea seedlings from the market. I made a rough structure for them to climb up using chicken wire and some tomato stakes, I tried to find a sunny spot for them, as they don't do well in the shade. I'm letting them get a bit bigger before I plant them or the slugs will eat them!

I'm going to plant some broccoli seeds as I saved heaps of seeds from last season. And I'll plant some more silver beet, as we only have two large plants at the moment. I was excited to see broccoli on the front of Organic Gardener magazine when it came in the mail today, with some nice tips (the one I noted was to check the soil pH is around 6 and use molasses spray for the caterpillars, will definitely be trying that).

waiting for these peas to get bigger before I plant them
(for fear of the dreaded slugs!)

I've made a space for the peas where the silver beet was,
and they can climb up this scrap of chicken mesh.
Note the beans still going wild in the background!

My herbs are doing well, I keep most of them in pots so they don't take over the garden, especially the mint. I love being able to pick fresh herbs to use in cooking. The only one missing at the moment it parsley and I have a couple of small plants growing in another area. They take so long to grow big!

My herb garden includes (clockwise from left) basil, mint,
peppermint, mini capsicum, rosemary, sage, comfrey, oregano, ginger and thyme

Some tomatoes decided to sprout from some compost I spread around, so I've transplanted them to a more sensible area of the garden, even though its not really a good time for tomatoes, it will be too cold soon, I thought I'd give them a chance, seeing as they're so keen!

These tomatoes were keen to grow, so I'm giving them a chance, out of season!

What are you planting this winter?? Like a said previously, we are in a weird climate zone, so I'm still trying to figure out what will grow here, any tips?

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