Spring has Sprung

We are finally getting some sunny days – not many, but a few. It’s still chilly, but it is wonderful to see the sunshine!

Most of the fruit trees are covered in blossom, even the tiny little miniature peach tree I bought on a whim a few weeks ago. It’s called a Pixzee Mini Peach, and I could not resist its adorable tininess when I saw it at the Big Green Shed.

Bees are going absolutely crazy out there – they don’t know where to start, whether it’s the apricot tree, the plum trees, or the rather spectacular Crimson-Flowered Broadbeans. These heirlooms will produce regular looking broadies but look super cool in the veggie patch.

I’m also growing a big block of dwarf broadies, which also look lovely – but not as speccy.

In weather like this, I want desperately to be in the garden, yet it is still too cold to plant anything in the ground. So all I can do is get ready for warmer times.

I’m growing celeriac in one of the wicking beds – a bit of an experiment to see if root veggies will do well in the greenhouse. Of course, I should have tried something that a) grows faster and b) I have grown before. But I am always adventurous, and I had the seeds, so I gave them a crack. The thing with celeriac, is that it is glacially slow. It takes well over 100 days to reach maturity. I might not have the patience for that, tbh.

Celeriac is such an interesting plant, with its cool warty roots and lovely nutty taste. It’s also pretty expensive to buy – at my local greengrocer, which is not overly expensive, individual roots were selling last week for eight dollars each!

The plants have grown beautifully and look super healthy – but they are not yet swelling at the roots. To help boost them along, I thinned the plants out today, which I hate doing, but it really needed to be done to give them the space they needed to expand. Then I trimmed some of the extraneous side leaves so the plants would put more energy into root development. Lastly, I gave them a side dressing of granular fruit & vegetable fertiliser.

Seedlings

I’ve been growing eggplants, tomatoes, chillies, basil, and capsicum from seed in the greenhouse for the past month. With the warmer weather, they have started to take off!

One variety of tomato, Violet Jasper, was ready to be pricked out into larger pots today. This year, I’m experimenting with recycled yoghurt pots as the Stage 1 pot – they are a good size (not too big not too small), free (free-ish anyway, given we buy the yoghurt, but we do that anyway), and will reuse the pots several times before they go in the recycling bin. My husband drilled drainage holes in the pots for me, and I filled them with my proprietary blend of equal parts seed raising mix, perlite and coarse propagating sand.

As only the Violet Jasper were ready, I used the remaining pots to plant some zucchini Cocozelle, pumpkin Golden Nugget, and cucumber Poinsett. There are varying opinions about whether growing zucchini and other curcubits for planting out is a good idea – some say not, others yes. I’ve done both ways, and my opinion is that it doesn’t matter very much. I want to take advantage of the greenhouse to start my plants while it is still cool outside, so I’m doing it this way. It’s so much colder where I live than on the plains, so taking the risk of transplant shock is worth it to me.

I also planted out a feijoa (Pineapple Guava) tree in a pot. My husband is originally from New Zealand, where the feijoa is beloved. They don’t really appeal to me (I don’t enjoy the strong perfumey flavour), but he will love having them around and I’ll enjoy growing the tree. I do quite enjoy feijoa jam, so if the tree produces enough I may make that one day.

Building Jobs

As my husband had his drill out, I asked him to help me build a new climbing frame for climbing beans (similar to the one below).

He also fixed the passionfruit vine trellis, which was sagging due to the heavy weight of the passionfruit. Next week I will lean the axe against the passionfruit as a reminder that if it doesn’t produce any fruit this season, it will definitely get the chop.

I also built several trellises for my future pumpkins.

Picking

This time of the year is not as abundant in the garden as the Summer months, but we are still picking some veggies to supplement our diet. We are picking heaps of greens (lettuce, spinach, herbs), rhubarb, and cumquats.

To fill in the hungry gap, I planted more lettuce seeds and spring onions today. About two weeks ago I also planted more bok choy and some rocket. Hopefully these will keep us going until the Summer plants take off!

I’m so excited for the next few months in the garden!

How about you – what are you doing to prepare for the warmer weather in your patch?

Weekend Garden Jobs, 16-17 August 2025

There comes a point when one has a dreaded lurgy, and it will differ for each person, when the thought of staying in bed one moment longer is just unbearable.

That moment was yesterday (Saturday) morning. The sky looked blueish enough, my cough was less hacky, and I thought, enough.

Rugged up well so I would not make my cough worse, I ventured outside, where I discovered my daffs and jonquils were in full bloom. I usually don’t pick them, because I love them in the garden, but there were so many I decided I could afford to fill a vase.

Saturday

My first job though was to dig over the chopped down green manure beds. Last week, I had hacked back the green manure and left the roots to release their nitrogen. This weekend, I dug them into the soil. I will leave them again for another week before digging them over again.

I was very pleased to note that when I dug over the bed near the chicken coop, I only found a small handful of roots and rocks. Last time I dug over that bed (in Autumn), I dug up a whole bucketful of horrible roots and rocks. I also noted that the soil right across the veggie patch is returning to a healthy state after my experiment with no-dig gardening went awry.

After digging these beds over, I sprinkled them with pelletised chicken manure and rock dust, and raked each one over.

Rock dust soil improver helps to remineralise the soil

Soils around the world, including Australia, have become progressively demineralised. While agricultural soils are the most impacted, home garden soils can also be affected. Rock dusts are a relatively, cheap, accessible, and organic method of improving the mineral content of the soil.

You can buy rock dusts from a range of sources, but I bought this bag from the Diggers Club when I ordered some seeds and plants recently. I do not apply rock dusts annually – I think I last applied some a couple of years ago. However as I am trying to repair my soil, I decided I would do it again this year.

It’s easy to apply. Just choose a clear day with little wind, mask up so you don’t breathe any in, and sprinkle it lightly on top of your soil. Instructions say a ‘handful per 1 metre square’ – however I have little tiny bird lady hands, so that doesn’t help me much. I just sprinkle what I think looks about right. Scientific!

Rake and water in. That’s it!

I also sprinkled a little on each potted fruit tree. I have four fruit trees in pots at the moment, including a new pink finger lime and a mini peach tree that I bought because it was so cute. I don’t even know what kind of peach it produces.

Then the rain came, and I headed inside so I would not get crook again.

Sunday

Sunday was supposed to be wet and horrid, according to the AI (Google Home), but my standard boring human intelligence informed me (by looking out the window) that the day had dawned clear and perfect. So out I went again, determined to spread sheep manure around my fruit trees, a job that I do every Winter. I am late to this task, preferring to do it in July rather than August, but better late than never.

You know you’re feeling better when you can spread sheep manure.

Every tree received a sprinkle of organic fruit tree fertiliser, a sprinkle of rock dust, a bag of sheep manure, and some mulch. What lucky trees!

I feel so dang virtuous!

You know what else I feel? Actually better – as in, well.

I honestly believe that spending time in the cool, fresh air and sunshine, surrounded by some healthy dirt and sheep poop, was the cure I needed.

How can I bottle that, I wonder? Maybe I should start a wellness Tik Tok. SheepPoopGirl? ManureMama?

Spring & Summer Garden Planning

The blog, like my garden, has mostly lain fallow for the past few months. I had a major project deadline to reach, which meant I worked 12 weeks worth of hours in 4 weeks. When I finished the project I decided to take a few days off, and predictably fell ill with ~~the plague~~ a nasty cold. All my gardening plans fell by the wayside while I languished in bed, cursing.

But resting makes time for planning. In between watching old episodes of Bones and reading delightfully silly Sookie Stackhouse novels, I also did some planning for my Spring and Summer veggie patch.

You might recall that I decided to grow green manures and legumes in my veggie patch over Autumn and Winter, letting my soil rest for the whole cool season. This was after my disastrous ‘no dig’ experiment, which left me with a rocky, dry, rootbound patch of sad looking soil.

Planning for Water

I am hoping that after this season of rest, my soil will be much happier and willing to take on some heavy producing plants. Think pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins. Last season was incredibly disappointing for pumpkins, which I mostly put down to the terrible weather. However, I do not believe that was the only reason. I think that the dodgy soil and my watering regimen was also a problem. I hope that this season’s soil repair efforts will make a big difference, but I have also decided that it is well past time to give up my old-school watering system (hose and sprinkler). This is just not serving me well anymore, partly because I am getting older, and partly because it takes way too much time (the part-time gardener’s most limited resource), and most of all because it just not efficient. This last year was the driest on record. My water bill for the Summer quarter was our highest on record. Something has to give.

From my sickbed I did some desktop research and contacted the highest rated and most consistently well-reviewed irrigation company near me, and asked them to quote. They contacted me five minutes later, and I organised for them to come out a few days later, when I was not so cooty-filled. They said they were not worried about my cooties and came out two days ago. While I sat in the weak sunshine feeling sorry for my snotty self, they measured and took photos, and then sent me an incredible quote (think about 25% of what I was expecting to pay) for an irrigation system for the entire veggie bed and all my backyard fruit trees. They are coming to install next week. If they do a good job, I will ask them to quote for the front yard fruit trees as well. If this system shaves down my Summer water bill and saves me time on watering, it will be money very well spent. If it improves my pumpkin growing experience, it will be worth its weight in…pumpkins. Which are quite heavy.

Last year was a singular disappointment in the pumpkin department. I refuse to live that disappointment again. That is the main reason for investing in the irrigation system. My brother had a spectacular melon patch last year, and he had installed a watering system. Pumpkins and watermelons are cousins, so I figured it was time to stop being a ~~cheap~~ stubborn old biddy and just do it already.

If you build it, they will come. Pumpkins, that is.

Planning for Spring

Spring is a great time to grow a quick cheeky crop of greens

The idea that we have four seasons that correspond to European seasons (but backwards) does not really fly in Australia. The Kaurna people, who are the traditional owners of the Adelaide Plains and the lands on which I live, describe four seasons, but start about a month later than we traditionally believe (i.e. Wirltuti or Spring, starts in October, not September, and Summer or Warltati starts in January, not December). That makes a lot of sense to me, when you consider that our September weather is still often so cold we have continue to run the heating at night. The soil is still often not warm enough to plant tomatoes outside until mid-October.

That means it is possible to plant a crop of cool season plants in Spring, if you plan well.

I don’t plant cool season veggies that take a long time to reach maturity in Spring (i.e. no cabbages or anything that has to form a head), but it is still worth planning to grow quick growing cool season veggies that will fill the so-called ‘hungry gap’ between the Spring and Summer harvest. This Spring I am planting:

Spinach – Heirloom mix
Lettuce – Heirloom mix
Mizuna
Dill
Coriander
Bok choy – Baby Red
Park Choi – Do Cheong Chae
Pak Choi – Extra Dwarf
Chinese Broccoli – Kailaan
Rocket

I ordered a batch of el cheapo bargain seeds from one of my favourite suppliers, Happy Valley seeds, when they had a $1 a packet sale. Even if a few of these run to seed when the warmer weather hits, it doesn’t really matter much. At $1 a packet, if I can harvest a quick crop I will have done well.

I still have a healthy crop of spinach, bok choy, coriander and dill that I am harvesting now in the greenhouse, and a small crop of celeriac in a wicking bed that I am keeping my eye on. That may not reach maturity before the hot weather hits – it was always a risk to grow it in a wicking bed, but I am hoping it will start growing lovely warty roots soon.

Planning for Summer

I have a clear plan for my Summer garden this year, and it involves pumpkins.

Pumpkins, you say?

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins.

Also, beans, eggplants, chillies, zucchini, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

But mostly, pumpkins.

To be honest, I love growing pumpkins much more than I love eating them. They are so beautiful, have so many varieties, and are just fun.

This year, in addition to the old faithfuls (Butternut, Buttercup, Queensland Blue), I am going to try:

All ordered online from the Diggers Club, the home of funky heirloom pumpkins.

On the bean trellis I am trying several kinds of climbing beans. I enjoy eating fresh green beans more than I enjoy eating pumpkins, to be honest, but for some reason, growing pumpkins is just so much more fun. So most available garden space will be handed over to the pumpkins. I may try a melon in with the pumpkins, despite my annual vow to never grow melons again.

Everything else (tomatoes, eggplants, etc) will go in the greenhouse. I ordered the eggplant, cucumber, and tomato seeds from Diggers Club and they arrived in less than a week, along with a native finger lime and lemongrass plant that I ordered on a whim, just coz.

On one sunny day when I felt slightly less like death warmed up, I staggered out to the greenhouse, masked up to avoid breathing in any dust and crud, and planted some eggplant and tomato seeds. Then I crawled back into bed.

Good job, soldier.

Which ‘Poos’ To Use

Manure is a critical ingredient in your soil health – both animal manures and ‘green’ (plant-based’) manures. I use both – but it can be confusing to know which kind of poo to use in your garden.

Green (Plant-based) Manures

Healthy Crop of Green Manure in my patch

Green manures are nitrogen-fixing plants that feed the soil from the nitrogen nodules on their roots. There are many different green manures – you can buy them easily from most nurseries and online. This season I planted a few mixes and a single species variety (fenugreek). Plant in a bed where you have had a heavy feeding crop like tomatoes – just bear in mind you will need to leave that plot aside for about 10 weeks. You won’t need to do much to it in that time while the green manures grows.

The trick with green manures is to cut them off at the base before they set seeds – either just before or just as they flower.

Once you have chopped them down, leave them alone to sit on top of your bed for another week or so. Don’t dig over the bed.

A week later, come back and dig the plants into your bed. Don’t be tempted to dig out the plants. This is when the magic happens! The nitrogen nodules will release their precious nitrogen into your soil at this point.

Come back a week later and dig it over again. Then let the plants continue to rot down. They will build structure into your soil.

You should do this in late Winter or early Spring, at least a month before planting Spring or Summer veggies. My soil here doesn’t warm up enough for Summer veggies until mid-late October, giving these plants plenty of time to rot down. I’m going to follow up these beds with a sprinkling of rock dust minerals and a bag of sheep manure and compost from my bins for extra nutrition and organic matter.

Animal Manure

Animal manures are useful in the organic garden. Vegans choose not to use these, as do some vegetarians. While I sympathise with these viewpoints, as a vegetarian I personally do choose to use these poos. Animal manures are a waste product and are a valuable soil amendment and compost activator. Aged and well-composted, they are safe to use in home gardens, including in soils used to grow vegetables and fruit.

Moreover, if we do not use animal manures to improve and amend our soils, where will the poo go? Landfill! Once there, manure will either break down anaerobically and create harmful greenhouse gases, or leach into waterways. In my opinion, not using manures is wasteful and harmful for the environment.

Some manures are better for the home garden than others. Different poos have different uses, and there are some I prefer to avoid (although some people do).

Compost Activators

I use some manures to activate compost. Compost is made up of ‘greens’ (grass clippings, kitchen waste, coffee grounds, and garden cuttings and weeds) and ‘browns’ (cardboard and paper, straw, dried leaves). A good blend of browns and greens is needed to make good compost – too many greens, and the compost will become anaerobic and smelly. Too many browns, and it will be too dry and will not compost quickly enough. To help your compost get moving and heat up, it helps to add some fresh manure.

I believe that the best manures to activate home compost are chicken, pigeon, rabbit, donkey, and horse.

Pigeon

Pigeon manure is the king of manure, in my opinion, but it is hard to get. My neighbour used to race pigeons and still has a coop. Every now and then, I find a bag of pungent pigeon poo at the bottom of our steps. No, he’s not sending me a message to get out of town – he’s giving me a bag of poop because he actually likes me, I promise.

Pigeon poo is very rich in nitrogen and must be composted for several months before it is ready to be used, or it will burn any plant it touches. Half a shopping bag in each compost bin sets the microbes to work like nothing else. Turn the compost once a month and in a few months it will be gorgeous.

Chicken

I also have ready access to fresh chicken manure mixed with straw from our coop, providing a mix of poo and browns in the compost bins every couple of weeks. Chicken manure is also very high in nitrogen, but not strong as pigeon. Every couple of weeks, I take a couple of inches of muck and crud off the top of their run, and dump that in the compost as well. That is also basically half-rotted chook poo and plants, and activates the compost almost as well as the pigeon poo.

Rabbit and Donkey

Very occasionally I receive a bag of rabbit poo from my brother-in-law. Rabbit poo is not high in nutrients but is light and dry and provides structure to the compost. Donkey poo is quite similar. You’d think it would be similar to horse manure, but actually it is quite dry and light, and provides both nutrients and structure to the compost. Due to the high likelihood of weed transference, it must be composted for at least six months.

Horse

Lastly, I occasionally add a couple of bags of horse manure to the compost bin. However, generally it is my preference not to use it. Horse manure can carry a lot of weed seeds. While their manure has value from a nutrient perspective and it adds good structure to the soil, it can bring weeds to the garden and must be composted for quite a while before use. I can get horse manure easily for free from the nearby race track, but for the most part choose not to because I have access to other manures. If I did not, I would use the horse manure, but would have to compost for longer than other manures.

Manures for use as a soil amendment

The only time I add manures directly to the garden without composting are already aged cow or sheep manure, which I buy from a trusted supplier, or pelletised chicken manure (for example, Dynamic Lifter). I never add manure that has not been well aged or composted directly to the garden. This is because fresh manure can cause several problems:

It can carry diseases that can transfer to the soil and the plants;
It can contain ungerminated weed seeds that can infest your garden;
If it is very high in nitrogen, it can burn plants.

My preferred aged manure is well-aged sheep manure, used as an amendment around fruit trees in Winter. Sheep manure is gentle, high in potassium but lower in nitrogen, adding structure to the soil without the risk of burning plants. There is a risk of some weed seeds transferring, but I have not had this issue.

Cow manure is also acceptable. Like sheep, they have four stomachs, which means their food is pretty well-digested by the time their manure is produced. As such, most weed seeds have been digested or killed off by the time they come out.

Dynamic Lifter or similar pelletised chicken manure products are commercially produced organic fertilisers, safe to use on the garden and high in nutrients. I use these directly on the garden at the start and end of each planting season to replenish the soil and feed the plants. While it is high in nitrogen, it will not burn plants due to its slow release, pelletised form. I use a similar organic chicken manure-based product to feed my fruit trees during Spring and Summer.

Poos to avoid

There are some manures I avoid. I believe that pig manure is a risk to the home garden, as it can harbour more disease than other manures. The home compost bin does not reach a high enough temperature to destroy these. Also it stinks like hell, which is a risk to neighbourly relations. I could end up with a less friendly bag of poo on my doorstep if I started using pig manure.

Cat and dog poo are not safe to use on the home garden, although there are composting units available specifically for dog and cat waste, these are to break it down so you don’t contaminate landfill, not to use it on your vegetable garden. Cat poo can carry diseases such as toxoplasmosis and should not be used in any garden where produce is grown for consumption.

It should go without saying, but human waste should also not be used on the home garden. Composting toilets have been in existence for many years, but most homes do not have these specialist facilities.

Mulberry Success

When we first moved into our place about ten years ago, I knew I wanted to grow fruit trees. Our block is not ideally situated for this, in all honesty. It slopes awkwardly, and the front yard is North facing. The soil was very poor limestone. It was planted with eucalypts and palms, with weed matting throughout. The backyard was closely planted with huge conifers and agaves. We paid an arborist to remove the trees and my husband tackled the agaves, and with a blank slate, we planned the garden. Our goal was to have a mix of productive and sensory plants, with the intention to always have something edible to pick from the garden at any time, whether it be herbs, fruits or veggies.

A decade later, we have a large herb, sensory, and veggie garden on rich soil, and about twenty different fruiting trees. In the front garden, this includes a black mulberry tree, which was planted nine years ago.

I love mulberries, but you can’t buy them in the shops. I have fond memories of visiting my friend’s house in the Summer, climbing her huge mulberry tree and sitting up there and searching around, finding the little black jewels. I still like ferreting around the tree, searching around jewel-like fruits to find the black, ripe berries. They look like they belong in a fairy story.

Mulberries are not a commercially viable crop. Picking them takes ages, as the berries ripen at different times. You have to walk slowly around the tree to find the couple of berries per branch ready to pick. They don’t transport well, and the shelf life is not long. So if you want mulberries, you have to grow them. And they are an acquired taste. Not really sweet like commercial berries, mulberries are tart-sweet with an underlying metallic taste that some people do not enjoy.

However, they are hard won. I was not expecting to have much of a crop for the first couple of years, but in the past few years we have waited expectantly for fruit that never came. We have had a couple of dry, tasteless berries each season, then the birds have carried off the rest. Last season, I was despondent, then threatening. I told my husband, “That bloody tree has one more season to produce some fruit, or it’s gone!” Then I thought, as with many garden-related issues, maybe the problem isn’t the tree – maybe it’s the gardener.

It didn’t fill me with joy to admit it, believe me. I don’t want to accept that perhaps I had been neglecting the tree. After all, the apricot tree gave us a bumper crop last year. So did the lime tree. Clearly, I could get a tree to produce fruit. But just as different kids need different parenting techniques, so might different fruit trees. So, I read up on mulberry trees. Any info I could find on mulberries, I consumed. Of course, there were differing opinions. Some said prune. Some said don’t prune. But almost all the experts agreed mulberries needed two things in abundance.

Water and fertiliser. Not so revolutionary after all. Turns out, I had been underwatering and under-feeding the poor tree. I upped the water, which makes a lot of sense on our north-facing hillside (deep water, once a week), and increased the nutrition. From early Spring, I fed the tree with a couple of handfuls of organic fruit tree fertiliser every month around the base of the tree, watered in well.

Check it out:

Oh yeah, baby. Mulberry time.

What I’m growing this Summer

I’ve been a bit late to planting this season, because I’ve been working non-stop, seven days a week. Unfortunately, just at the best possible time of year to be out in the garden, I am also usually the busiest, work-wise. My little office overlooks my front garden, and I have been watching the Spring garden bloom away while I have been working away. It’s kind of a bummer, to be honest. But not having any money is also kind of a bummer, so I have sucked it up and looked forward to the time it all settles down and I can get back out there.

That time is now, before the next major project starts (any day now). Carpe diem, my friends.

This weekend I spent the first full day in six weeks out in the garden. There was a *lot* to do out there, from digging up the used brassica plants, to a heckton of weeding, to feeding and mulching, to planting. Let’s just say at the end of the day I was in some state of pain. Seven days a week sitting at a desk is not good conditioning for a day spent digging and weeding.

It was lovely though, to be outside in the sunshine, not thinking about the election of schmonald schrump and focusing on what I can personally do to make my little patch of the world more beautiful and sustainable and healthy.

I tried to make some ruthless decisions about what to plant this year, based on experience about what has continually succeeded and failed in my garden over the past couple of years. I’m kicking out melons this year, and have carefully selected the type of eggplants, chillies, and capsicums. I tried to reduce the number of tomatoes but I have to admit I failed at that, big time. I’m trying to grow a lot more beans (both bush and climbing).

I am continuing the okra experiment, but it is not going well at all. After transplanting from the greenhouse, they are spindly and slow-growing. My husband thinks they will do better in the greenhouse as it is more humid, and he may be right, considering their natural habitat. I might plant some in the greenhouse and compare their growth to the open garden beds. I know that the cucumbers do not do well in my open garden beds, but in the greenhouse they do really well.

ladies fingers lot — Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

The cucumbers are getting even more greenhouse space this season – we love them fresh and pickled, but it does depend on the pickle recipe. I did both sliced and spears last season, and the spears recipe was not very tasty (waste of delicious cucumbers!). We still have some and I will get through them, but it makes me a bit cranky when I make a pickle recipe that is not as delicious as it should be. There is no excuse for a bad pickle, when they could be so good.

Zucchini, squash, and pumpkins are also getting generous garden space. Last year’s pumpkins were a bit average. I love growing pumpkins, but I grew an heirloom variety that did not do well and wasted a whole season and a heck of a lot of garden space (Wrinkled Butternut – way less productive than the regular tried and true Butternut and much less tasty – my recommendation is not to bother). This year I am still experimenting with an heirloom (Musque de Provence) but also growing the tried and true Kent, which always kicks butt in my patch. From now on, I will combine an experimental pumpkin with a trusted variety so if the experiment does not work out I will still have the trusted pumpkin in pocket.

This year I am growing:

Beans: Kentucky Wonder Wax (Climbing), Cherokee Trail of Tears (Climbing), Goldrush (Bush). When I spotted Cherokee Trail of Tears I knew I had to grow it. This was apparently the bean that the Cherokee brought with them from their homelands and carried it with them all along the Trail of Tears – heirloom seeds tell a story of the people that have grown it, and this is a devastating story of horror but also resilience. To grow it and save the seeds is to honour their resilience and history;
Capsicum: Yolo Wonder, Sweet Chocolate;
Chilli: Anaheim, Jalapeno, Serrano;
Cucumber: Marketmore, Dragon’s Egg, Jefferson, and another one I can’t remember the name of! I grow Marketmore every year, it is a real trooper of a cuke, good disease resistance and is prolific;
Eggplant: Listada Di Gandia, Tsakoniki;
Okra: Clemson’s Spineless, Crimson;
Pumpkin/Squash: Kent, Musque de Provence; Oregon Winter Squash; Squash Sweet Dumpling.
Tomatoes/Tomatillo: Black Cherry, Black Russian, Jaune Flamme, Costoluto Fiorentino, Azoychka, Tomatillos;
Zucchini: Tromboncino, Ronde de Nice, Cocozelle.

This year’s planting decisions were made based on: what we like to eat and the cuisine we mainly cook (Indian, Italian, Mexican, all vegetarian), what grows well in my garden, what I have space to grow, watering requirements, and what I have the time to take care of.

How about you – what are you growing in your patch this Summer?

Wicking Beds

Wicking Beds are gaining in popularity in Australia due to their water saving capabilities. They are designed to draw water from the reservoir at the base of the bed, rather than from top-watering, which reduces evaporation and saves water by up to 50% on conventional raised beds.

I have been interested in them for a while, but I don’t have the skills to build a wicking bed (nor the time, or interest to learn, frankly). When I researched them, I found instructions to build a wicking bed (no thanks), or a range of options to buy ready-made at very different styles and prices.

Finally, I chose a South Australian company selling via Facebook Marketplace. These are built from reclaimed timber, which was attractive to me as a more sustainable option than the fancier models using virgin materials. These aren’t as stylish as some of the models I have seen, but they are sturdy, sustainable, cheaper, and easy to use.

I bought two beds to fit in the greenhouse, with the intention to grow tomatoes and eggplants. I was not happy with the eggplant crop last year, and while we had some good tomatoes last year I know we can do better.

Each bed is lined with thick plastic, and has a tap for overflow (pictured above). The box at the end is for storage (tools etc). The blue cloth you can see in the picture is used to stop the soil falling into the scoria once the bed is filled.

Preparing Wicking Beds

To protect the beds from sun and water damage and make sure they last as long as possible, the wood should be coated before use. You can choose oil, wax or paint. I chose to use exterior enamel paint, after first considering beeswax, boiled linseed oil, and decking oil. Exterior paint was the cheapest option, would last a long time, and as the wicking bed is lined and the paint was only used on the outside of the beds, was a safe solution. A light sand, and then three coats of exterior paint in pale eucalyptus (gloss) and they were ready to go. We had been painting our kitchen that week, so it was not much more effort to paint the wicking beds at the same time, and I think it was worth it.

Filling Wicking Beds

The base of the wicking bed should be lined with a medium such as scoria (volcanic rock) or perlite. I chose scoria as this was recommended to me by the company that built the wicking beds, and is more than half the price of perlite. However, it is much heavier, so be sure about where you want to place the wicking beds before you add it as you will not be able to move it again once you load it up with the scoria! I have accepted that these beds will be there forever now. I suggested to my husband that I could be buried in one of the beds when I die. Cheap funeral. He did not think that was funny. At all.

After placing the scoria (about five bags per bed), it is lined with the shade cloth, and then the soil is added. I used a mix of straw, compost, and potting soil, and watered in some soil wetting agent to make sure the soil does not dry out.

Watering the Wicking Beds

Each bed comes with a fill pipe in the corner. Using a hose, fill the bed through the fill pipe – too easy! You will know to stop if the overflow tap….overflows.

I have tomatoes and eggplants in the wicking beds. Each bed is also mulched to reduce evaporation. The beds comfortably fit four tomatoes and four eggplants each, as well as some basil. . The results have been remarkable. The tomato plants are enormous and healthy.

I am already planning to buy another wicking bed. I believe they have been worth the money. The wicking beds are 1.5 metres long and 60 cm wide, which is pretty large. These beds are not as pretty as some of the schmick wicking beds I saw online, but at easily half the price of many of the models I reviewed, I think they make up for it in utility. At a cost of $349 each (not including paint and filling), I would not say that these are cheap, but they are definitely not the most expensive option on the market either. These beds will help me achieve my dream of an almost self-sustaining vegetable garden, and as I age, I will be able to continue using my greenhouse easily without bending – this is becoming a more important consideration in my garden with every passing week, it seems. Cared for properly, they should last many years.

What else has been going on in the patch?

I have been out of action on the blog and in the garden due to a huge workload and project deadlines. While I have been ignoring the patch, it has continued to show the love with non-stop veggie production: broad beans, snow peas, spinach, and broccoli. When the kids ask me “what’s for dinner?” the answer over the past two weeks has been “something with broccoli” as we have had so much of it!

Our fruit trees are in full Spring production mode, including our Smyrna quince tree, which is so exciting! Planted and espaliered a year ago, you can see it was in full flower in its second season (this photo was taken a few weeks ago – it is now covered in baby quinces). I love quince flowers and adore quince fruit, so am delighted to watch them develop. We also have plums, mulberries (heaps of them, finally!!), avocadoes (for the first time), apricots, limes, and a potentially huge crop of apples and pomegranates. I don’t want to get ahead of myself as there are a good couple of months to go yet, but if all goes well it will be a bountiful Summer and Autumn. I’m helping things along with regular watering and feeding with organic fruit tree fertiliser monthly.

Gardening in Winter

In the colder weather, it is difficult to know what you can do out in the garden. If, like me, you have filled almost every conceivable space in the patch with cool weather plants (think brassicas, peas, and turnips), kept the weeds down, spread the cow manure, and trimmed the woody herbs – what else is left to do?

Honestly, it is a conundrum. Eyeballing the slow growing veggies is not making them grow any faster in this cold weather, although I do give them a good staring in the hope that it will nudge them along (spoiler alert: it doesn’t).

There are still a few more useful tasks I can do in the wintry weather to prepare for the busier seasons coming up.

Plan your Spring/Summer veggie patch

It may be cold outside, but the seed catalogues don’t know that! I’ve spent a lovely time ordering my seeds, taking advantage of a couple of EOFY sales, and an even lovelier time sorting them into my various seed collections (once a librarian, always a librarian). I now have all the seeds I will need to start raising seedlings in the greenhouse in just a couple of weeks’ time.

My husband, bless him, is also making plans for some building out there (new retaining wall, stronger trellising). Winter is a great time to make gardening plans, preferably with a hot cuppa in hand.

Keep on composting!

Even in the cold weather, the compost keeps on composting. It definitely slows down in the cooler months but turning it regularly and activating it with some chicken manure will keep it working its mojo. This weekend, I gave the compost bins a turn and was even able to pull some out of the bins, making room for more litter from the chook yard. I’m not going to fib, it was a chilly job, but worth it to keep the compost going.

Succession Planting

While most of the patch is planted up with the aforementioned brassicas, peas and turnips, we are still picking veggies from the garden. Just last weekend, I picked a whole container of greens, peas, and some onions for a fresh stir fry. With each picking, the garden is a little depleted, and although the weather is cool, I need to think about replanting what I have taken out. My tip for keeping a steady supply of something coming out of the patch is to ABP – Always Be Planting. To do that, I try to be either regularly raising seedlings in the greenhouse, or planting a cheeky row of greens, onions, or root veggies somewhere in the patch. Right now, I have baby turnips and carrots in the patch, and trays of leeks, onions, spinach, lettuce, bok choy, and silverbeet in trays in the greenhouse, to replace the veggies I pick over the next couple of weeks. I just planted out a heap of purple kohlrabi, which I may live to regret as it hardly ever forms decent bulbs in my garden – but my gardener’s eternal optimism makes me hope that this year will be different (if anyone has kohlrabi advice, please let me know in the comments).

This approach also helps to prevent the so-called Hungry Gap, that time in Spring after the brassicas and turnips are done and before the Summer flush.

Garden Wanders and Tidying Up

Although it’s cold, I do a quick wander around the garden a few times a week. I don’t have a great deal of choice right now, tbh, as our kitchen has been demolished and we are cooking and eating outside in our covered patio, fetching water for washing up from the tap. I see the garden daily from this quite chilly vantage point. It has allowed me to keep an eye on any weeds, pick out any that I see and toss them to the chickens and then go about my business of trying to feed four people using a single hotplate (fun times). As with most things, regular attention reduces the workload and sharpens your focus on what needs to be done.

I do this with my houseplants as well. Houseplants generally sulk through the Winter months: the combo of the cold weather, dry air, and indoor heating leads to dormancy and browning off on leaves. Add to that a lovely hit of dust from indoor construction, and I have some very sad plants. I often take a closer look at my houseplants though because I love them and I enjoy looking at them, and noticed my favourite Neon Diffenbachia was looking peaky on one branch. It kept flopping over, while the other canes stood up tall. On inspection, I found a small patch of scale, which I was able to scrape off before it became a big patch of scale. Now that I have noticed this issue, I will make sure to pay more attention to this lovely lady.

Top Five Gardening Podcasts

Wait, what? There are gardening podcasts?

Of course – and like all podcasts, there are good ones and…not so good ones.

When I’m out in the garden, I like to be joined by other gardening nerds, so I listen to gardening podcasts. My preference is for Australian podcasts of course, because the hosts know our unique growing conditions and the information is seasonally relevant. However, I do listen to one or two international pods, if I think I can use the information or I like the hosts and the content.

I have tried and tested almost all the different gardening podcasts out there, and these are my top five.

All the Dirt

All The Dirt is an Aussie pod recorded in Western Australia, hosted by horticulturalists and garden writers Derryn Thorpe and Steve Wood. Almost every week they interview an Australian garden expert, horticulturalist, or gardening writer on a specific topic (for example, curator of the WA Seed Centre at Kings Park, or the Compostable Coach (aka Compostable Kate) about different methods of home composting). In other episodes they will just have a chat about best plants to grow in a Summer veggie patch (tbh these are my favourite episodes). I like their gentle, knowledgeable approach, that makes you feel like you are joining them for a cuppa and a scone.

2. Backyard Gardens

This is an American gardening podcast, with two very different hosts from two very different parts of the USA. Ben gardens in the South, and Batavia gardens in metro Chicago. Their banter can take some getting used to (quite different from the more laidback Aussie style of All The Dirt, for example). At first I found Ben’s approach a bit abrasive. After sticking with it, I found that Batavia is more than able to handle him, and I enjoyed their divergent communication styles and gardening approaches, which are very different due to the different conditions they garden under. To deal with the seasonal differences, I generally listen to their Summer podcasts (current now) in our Summer (so, six months behind) and am now listening to their Winter gardening podcasts from last year. Or I choose podcasts that are not seasonally specific. For example, they did a great series on food security and preserving food, and another on sustainable gardening. Everything comes from the perspective of home gardeners.

3. Roots and Shoots

Another Western Australian podcast, hosted by Amber Cunningham and well-known gardening expert Sabrina Hahn, this is one for people who don’t mind a laugh while learning about gardening. I’d say only about half of the pod is about gardening; the rest is jokes, Sab laughing at her own jokes, and general tomfoolery. Available through regular podcasting apps as well as the ABC Listen app.

4. Talkback Gardening

The podcast of the Saturday morning ABC Adelaide’s talkback gardening show, hosted by Deb Tribe and gardening expert Jon Lamb, expect a million questions about lemon trees, citrus gall wasp, and how to remove scale from various trees. Regular helpful guests including interviews with local fruit tree nursery owners, a citrus expert, a turf consultant, some rare fruit and organic gardening experts, houseplant, garlic, and herb writers, and a monthly long range weather forecaster who gives his very accurate predictions about the weather and rainfall at the start of each month. As comfortable as a well-worn gumboot. Available through regular podcasting apps as well as the ABC Listen app.

5. Avant Gardeners

A recent discovery, Avant Gardeners is a Tasmanian podcast hosted by two women, Emily and Maddie, who are a bit like me – raising families, trying to fit gardening in their busy lives, doing their best. They also interview gardening experts, in a similar vein to All The Dirt, but as the hosts don’t have the decades of industry expertise, it’s quite charming and chilled. I’d have to describe it as very ‘Tassie’? There is a distinct difference that you can feel between the WA and Tassie gardening podcasts – I reckon it’s all that lovely water and cool weather in Tasmania. They’re just not that worried about as much in the garden, whereas the WA gardeners seem just a bit stressed out all the time. I get it – trying to grow a garden on pure sand with almost no water will do that to a body.

What to do in the garden with the time you have this week

If you have an hour

Check your garden for slugs, snails, and cabbage moth larvae. The wetter weather attracts these pests, so I often take a walk around the patch to check for them and pick them off the brassicas. My chooks don’t eat them (little slackers), so I usually squish them. Although I don’t use poisons in my garden, I do sprinkle an organic iron-based pellet around the leafy greens and brassicas to deter slugs and snails (non-toxic to dogs and cats and other furry critters). A visit from these little monsters can take out your Winter veggie patch overnight!

If you have 2-3 hours

Start trimming dead growth on woody herbs. Ideally, I would have done most of this in late Autumn, but pobody’s nerfect, amiright? My herb garden is large, and trimming all the old woody growth on the mint, oregano, salvia and thyme takes a long time. I spent several hours on this extremely boring task last weekend, and only completed about 30% of the task. I have it on my list for this coming weekend as well (reluctantly). I know that future me will be very pleased with past me if I do get this task done, as future me will be rewarded with lush new growth in Spring.

If you have 5-6 hours

Mulch all your fruit trees with aged cow or sheep manure. I do this every Winter. As I have about twenty fruit trees, it takes me a long time. This is another one of those boring, once-a-year tasks that I don’t really enjoy, but I know must be done. The thick mulch of manure creates a warm blanket over the soil and rots slowly. By Springtime, the nutrients are ready for the tree to take up in time for the fruiting season.

My preference is to use aged sheep manure, but my usual supplier sold out this year, so I settled for cow manure. Either will do the job, but I do prefer aged sheep manure because it is higher in potassium. Just make sure that whichever poo you choose, it is well aged and composted, and that when spreading you do not place it right up to the tree trunk – leave a ring of 5-10 cm away from the trunk to prevent collar rot. Then let it rot down slowly over Winter and into Spring. I use three 25 litre bags per large tree (e.g. the Apricot and Mulberry trees), and one 25 litre bag per small tree (e.g. the dwarf Apples and Plums).

Welcome to Autumn…sort of

Still picking chillies almost at the end of Autumn

It’s been several weeks since I’ve been out in my garden. I’ve been working almost non-stop for six weeks, punctuated by one heck of a respiratory virus that knocked me on my butt. So, six weeks has gone by with little more than a wishful glance outside my window to watch the leaves on my pomegranate slowly turn golden.

Technically, it’s Autumn. I say technically, because with the change to our weather patterns, mid-May is still dry and quite warm in our part of the world.

We have had almost no rain since late January, and the long-range weather forecast is for very little rain to the end of the month and the start of Winter. These warm, dry autumnal conditions are sadly becoming the norm in Southern Australia.

While this has enabled me to continue to grow some Summer veggies into late Summer/early Autumn, it has also delayed planting of cool Winter veggies. I have planted turnip and swede seeds, and I have planted out some brassica seeds. But I am also picking tomatoes, tomatillos, and chillies, two weeks before the start of Winter. And I don’t mean from the greenhouse – I’m talking from the outside garden patch. That should tell you how warm the soil and air temps still are.

Summer Garden Duds

At the end of the season, I always review the season’s successes and duds, to help me think about what to plant the following year.

This year, the absolute losers have been the eggplants. It breaks my heart to tell this tale yet again (last year, they were the losers as well).

I adore eggplants, but honestly all my efforts have led to a couple of meals-worth of mixed eggplant from about 15 plants.

Why were they duds, yet again?

The cool start to the Summer season was the main reason. They grew slowly, not putting on much growth until quite late. As they took so long to pick up, pests set in, particularly the ~~little jerk~~ spider mite, which has been the bane of gardeners in our region this year. After I got on top of the spider mite, the aphids have set in to take advantage of already weakened plants.

I think the other reason is that I was lured by the seed catalogues to try fancy heirloom varieties instead of going with old faithfuls that are known to do well in our areas. Instead of going with the classics, such as Lebanese or Bonica, I just had to try the bright red, white egg, and Thai ball varieties. This is nothing against heirlooms. I love growing heirlooms, particularly tomatoes, and most do very well in my garden. But you do have to select carefully, and I think I was not careful enough in my selections. The varieties I chose just don’t do that well in our region. Next year I’m reverting back to the classic varieties that have stood the test of time in South Australian gardens.

Another dud was again, as usual, melons. If I say I am trying melons ever again, someone send me a comment or message to remind me that I cannot grow melons in my area. It doesn’t seem to matter if it is in the garden bed or the greenhouse, it doesn’t matter if it is an heirloom or a hybrid, full-size or a mini – if it is a melon, it just ain’t fruiting in my garden.

The other dud in my patch this year was, unusually for me, pumpkins. I understand that this has been the case for many gardeners in our region, so will try not to take it personally. Usually, I have a good run with pumpkins of all types. This season, perhaps again due to the late start to the season, I had healthy vines but not that many pumpkins. In the end I picked seven pumpkins. That’s not terrible but not great for me.

My mother has had a bumper crop of Butternuts from her tiny courtyard garden down the hill on the Adelaide Plains, which goes to show it can be done.

The lower early Summer temps also caused some issues with Summer squash. This year I had a few nice, big, Bennings Green Tint squash before they just started fasciating due to the low temperatures. Fasciation is a rare mutation that can occur in certain plants exposed to lower-than-normal temperatures. Squash and zucchini can be affected, causing contorted flower production at the end of a stem. Several squash plants started off well, produced fruit, and then fasciation set in. It did look quite cool though.

Summer Garden Wins

I have had some great wins this year though. The biggest winner was our Travatt apricot tree, which went bananas (er…apricots) and gave us the biggest crop of fresh apricots we have ever had. We gave away, we dried, we stewed, we bottled, we jammed, we gorged. If apricots were dollars, we were filthy rich in golden orange goodness for about a month. It was awesome.

The other winners were chillies, tomatoes, cucumbers (yay), tomatillos, and zucchini.

I wrote about chillies recently. We have had an excellent crop this year, and they continue to produce.

While tomatoes have not been prolific enough to make sauce, they have been really delicious. We grew three varieties this year: Green Zebra, Riesentraube, and Mysterioso, which I have mentioned before is an unknown beefsteak variety I grew from a storebought tomato. All three have been good, although the Green Zebra has outperformed in terms of productivity, while the Mysterioso is my favourite for size (huge! One slice fits a piece of toast or a sandwich – crazy!) and flavour (so sweet). My husband prefers the Green Zebra, as he loves the firm texture and tang. We have planted another crop of both in the greenhouse. My friend K has a crazy prolific cherry tomato plant that popped up in their garden – I have saved seeds from that and am giving it a go. Will let you know how K’s Tomato does on the productivity and taste test – seedlings went into pots last weekend.

Related to the tomatoes are the lovely tomatillos. I have not grown these for many years, but when we were in Tasmania last year, I bought some seed at Salamanca Markets. The other seeds I bought at the same stall turned out not to grow too well in my region (Hobart and Adelaide – not being very similar, weather wise), but the tomatillos have done well. We have a freezer full of salsa verde, and another bagful of whole tomatillos in the freezer ready for when we run out of salsa. Considering how often we eat Mexican food, I would say that will be pretty soon. Aside from the usefulness and deliciousness, I love growing them for their lovely flowers and beautiful growth habit.

Cucumbers were another great win, and probably my proudest. I have not always had success growing cucumbers. I love them – particularly pickled – but also fresh for snacks and in salads, and homegrown taste so delicious. But my efforts have been very pitiful, until this year. I have grown a huge number in the early season, that we enjoyed in salads, as little snacks, and then I made pickled spears and sliced cucumber pickles for burgers and sandwiches. I could not have been prouder of the jars of cucumber pickles in my pantry – not so much for the pickles, but because I actually succeeded in growing enough cucumbers to make pickles! I grew several varieties, including Marketmore and Mini White, and Gherkin. So far Marketmore and Gherkin were the winners for productivity and resistance to powdery mildew.

Zucchini have always been a bit hit-or-miss at our place. Some years we have a good crop, and other years, quite average. This year, I took a chance and planted Tromboccino, an heirloom zucchini that is a bit like a pumpkin, growing on a climbing vine that spreads all over the place. It produces long, skinny fruit with a bulbous end (like a trumpet or trombone – hence its name). I love this plant. Zucchini is one of my favourite vegetables, but when they grow too large they can become quite watery. Tromboccino stays lovely and firm even if you forget to pick it, makes delicious pickles, curries, or pasta, and keeps for a long time. You need space to grow it though, as it will run rampant across the garden. It produces for months.

I did try a couple of other zucchini this year – Rondo, Black Beauty, Cocozelle – but tbh none of them really took off like the Tromboccini. Given garden space is at a premium and that Tromboccino takes up so much of it, next year I will just grow Tromboccino and let it go hard. I will keep trialling some Summer squash though.

How about you – what were your garden winners and losers this year?