Veggie Patch Basics - 5 (Oct-Nov)

Spring opens up great opportunities for growing vegetables, but the tricky Tasmanian climate makes timing really important.  This fifth post in the Veggie Patch Basics series covers the October - November period.  It aims to help you decide what to grow, and when to sow and plant it.

This Veggie Patch Basics series assumes that the reader is a novice vegetable gardener, but the series may also be of interest to those with more experience. It describes how to set up a veggie garden and what to do during the first year. The series does not cover permanent food plants such as berries and fruit because they are covered in many other posts on this Food Garden Group blog.

Veggie Patch Basics-1 covered where to put your veggie garden and compost area, and establishing four areas in your veggie garden. Veggie Patch Basics-2  then discussed the April-May period, Veggie Patch Basics-3 the June - July period, and Veggie Patch Basics-4 the period August-September. This blog post covers the next two-month period.

Part 5: October - November

In this blog post we are going to look at the four areas in our food garden in October and November, but before we do that, let's discuss a few more concepts that will help you make this season a success.

Look after your microbes and then they look after you

In healthy food garden soil there is a micro-world full of microbes that can be compared to the unspoilt wild worlds of Africa. There are many varieties of animals that graze (bacteria and fungi), and there are many other varieties of animals that eat other animals (protozoa and nematodes). 

In soil that has no microbes, in other words 'dead soil', a plant will struggle to access any of the manure, compost or fertiliser added to it, because it is not in a form that is readily accessible. 

In soil that is rich in microbes those microbes make food available to plants, and in return the microbes get food from the plants that they need to thrive. Symbiosis is the term used for interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both. The way microbes interact with plants is an excellent example of symbiosis.

  

Soil experts such as Dr Paul Stamets ('Six Ways Mushrooms can Save the World'), Dr Elaine Ingham ('Soil Food Web International') and Jeff Lowenfels ('Teaming with Microbes') and others have developed methods that give microbes a central place in the growing of nutrient-rich food. 

According to their methods you don't feed your plants, but you feed your microbes, and if you feed them well, your plants will thrive and provide you with nutrient-rich food. 

In line with their methods you ....

• Walk on food garden soil as little as possible, so it is not compacted
• Dig or rotary-hoe soil as little as possible, so the microbial environment is not destroyed.
• Limit toxic pesticides as much as possible, so they don't kill microbes
• Be very careful with fertilisers, because unnatural concentrations of elements kill microbes
• Irrigate regularly if there is no rain, so soil never dries out
• Mulch soil, so it remains moist and soil temperatures are never very high

Starting a new compost heap

Over winter composting is slowed down considerably because of low temperatures.  The October - November period is a good time to start a new compost heap or improve your existing one.

The first blog post in this series discussed why you would want a compost heap, and where to put it in your garden (see Now find the shadiest spot in your garden .. in Veggie Patch Basics - 1 ).

The microbes in your food garden will very much benefit from you having a compost heap if ...

• You always mix your fertilisers into your compost heap, instead of putting them straight on your soil. Whatever harmful concentrations of elements your fertilisers contain will be softened by your compost heap.

• You always mix your manures (chicken, cow, horse, sheep, alpaca etc.) into your compost heap, rather than adding them straight to the garden. Manures, in particular fresh chicken manure, can be far too concentrated to be added straight to food garden soil. Manures can also contain herbicides that will be broken down if you compost the manure, or that will do a lot of harm to your vegetables if used directly without first composting them. It is worth reading section About chemicals in manures in blog post Marvellous Manure. In that blog post a Food Garden Group member talks about major problems she had using seemingly harmless sheep manure directly on her vegetables.  

Use your compost heap as a filter that filters out poisons and poisonous concentrations, and produces a  nutrient-rich mix that feeds your microbes!

Okay, so you have found a good spot for your compost heap (see Vegie Patch Basics - 1).  I recommend you have two compost heaps next to each other. One heap can mature, while you are building the next one.  This is explained in more detail below.

Most people will simply buy two compost bins at their local hardware store. I am not a fan of these plastic bins. People open the lid, chuck something in and quickly close the lid again. Seldom the content is examined to see what is actually going on in there, whether the content is too wet or too dry, whether any actual composting is happening. Mixing compost in this type of bin is nigh impossible, unless you buy a tool that looks like a big cork screw (see photo below), that allows people to turn the content of the bin ... somewhat.  

Making two enclosures (rather than buying plastic bins) for your compost heaps, so air can circulate freely and you can work with the heaps easily can be quite simple (see Making Compost - part 2).

Good compost is made when you combine brown organic material, green organic material, manure, blood and bone, water and air, mix it all up, and let it mature in a shady spot.

Here is how I make compost:

• I have two compost compartments.  Let's assume that one of these areas is empty.

• I collect browns and greens in the area over 2 or 3 weeks.  Every time I have some garden waste I determine whether it will go on the compost heap or into my Clarence Council green waste bin.  Aggressive weeds (in my garden twitch grass for instance), aggressive seeds (in my garden oxalis seeds for instance), thick woody branches, and very diseased garden waste (tomato plants with mildew for instance) go in my Clarence Council green waste bin. I do not compost them because I can not be certain that they will be composted 100%. 

• Green waste that is fine for my heap I may cut into small bits if they are stringy or bulky, and then for the time being I just put them on a pile in the empty composting area.

• In the mean time kitchen scraps accumulate in our Bokashi bin in the kitchen.  A lidded bin outside will be fine too. The Bokashi process puts them through the first stage of being broken down. For more on Bokashi see blog post Microbes in Your Soil on this blog.

• When I have enough material to start the new heap I buy blood and bone, and 3 or 4 bags of sheep poo, and and mow our small lawn in our garden. Grass clippings are full of nitrogen and ideal for starting off the composting process.

• I add to the heap the sheep manure, the grass clippings and the contents of my bin with kitchen scraps and sprinkle this with a generous helping of blood and bone.

• Now I thoroughly mix all these ingredients, making sure there are no clumps of grass or any other materials. While mixing I add water, so everything is nice and wet, but not sodden. I finish by putting a strip of old carpet (from the tip shop) over the top to keep warmth and moisture in and sun out, and to make sure excessive rain does not drown the heap.

• In coming weeks I will have more garden waste, that once again I cut or shred, if needed. Initially I simply put it on top of the new small heap.

• After a few weeks I once again add the content of the kitchen scrap bin and mix all the new ingredients in with what was already there. I might also once again add some blood and bone or complete organic fertiliser (COF – see Complete Organic Fertiliser on this blog) and sprinkle water if the mix is too dry. 

• While doing the mixing ‘smell your heap’. If the smell is foul this indicates inadequate aeration, too much moisture or excessive nitrogen. Adding air, by remixing the heap, or adding dry material, if things look very wet, is the answer.

• I repeat this process until my heap fills most of the compost bay. I then remix it once more and leave it sitting there, covered with carpet, for the next 3 months or so.  

• New material now goes into the second compost bay, and I repeat the same process there.

• After 3 or more months I begin to use the compost in the other bay until it is empty etc. etc. 

You can find more about making compost in Making Compost part 1 and Making Compost part 2.

It is time to mulch!

I am writing this blog post at the end of September.  Top temperatures are now between 15 and 20 degrees on most days.  On a day like today, with a fair bit of wind and sun, the top layer of soil dries out quickly.  For me, watering my garden and mulching starts now!  

You could divide mulches in a few categories:

• Non-organic mulches (pebbles etc.) that do not break down, are good around permanent ornamental plants, but not on veggie-beds, because they don't enrich the soil

• Grass-type mulches (sugar cane mulch, hay, straw, sea grass) that break down at a steady pace and gradually enrich soils. They are liked by bacteria, and therefore are good for veggie-beds

• Woody mulches (shredded branches and twigs) that break down slowly. They are liked by fungi, and therefore are good around fruit trees and berries

• Specialised mulches (pea straw, pine needles, sea weed)

We have had Silverbeet volunteers (plants that come up without you sowing them) in our garden for many many years. Visitors sometimes comment on the size of them. They always seem to be very healthy and happy where they choose to come up. The photo below shows where that is.  I can do to our veggie-beds whatever I like, but our Silverbeet plants (very recalcitrant individuals they are) thrive in our pebble paths.  This might be because the layer of pebbles retains moisture so well. It has not persuaded me to put a pebble mulch on our vegie-beds, but it does show how good a non-organic mulch can be.

The best moment to mulch your vegie-beds is just after rain or after watering.

Sugar cane mulch is one of the easiest-to-get mulches and it is perfectly okay for vegie gardens.

Hay is one of the best mulches to use because it adds a lot of nutrients to soils as it breaks down.  

To make sure fine mulches don't blow away in stormy conditions, water them well, straight after putting them on.  I find that they stay put very well if you do this.

More info about mulching (how to mulch, how not to mulch, types of mulches and their effectiveness) can be found in Mulching - Why and How and What is Deep Hay Mulching? on the Food Garden Group blog.

Our vegie-beds in the October-November period

In blog post Vegie-Patch Basics 3 I suggested that you make a plan for the first year of your four-bed vegie patch. Let's now look at each area, how far things might have progressed, and what you can do next.

Legume area

The plan was

peas, broad beans until mid-November, then beans for the second part of the season

Where are we at?

I sowed my broad beans in early June.  They are now half a metre high and flowering (see photo below). 

With the windy conditions we have in spring I will soon have to 'corrale them in', i.e. surround them with wire, to make sure they don't all fall over. Broad bean leaves are great to eat in stir-fries and salads at any time.  Small broad beans can be eaten whole.  You can still sow broad beans now, but they prefer mild over warm weather.  

In a previous blog post I explained that I plant my broad beans all over my vegie bed, so the plants add nitrogen to the soil. This planting method has one minor disadvantage: a lack of ventilation.  This leads to 'rust' (a brown-red fungus) forming on broad bean leaves after rain or irrigation in warmer weather. The pods of broad beans affected by rust are absolutely fine, so I suggest you just ignore the rusty leaves. If you don't like the rust, next season plant your broad beans in single rows, with space in between the rows.

Peas: I sowed my peas quite early (mid April). They began to flower mid July, but did not form any pea pods because it was too cold.  This shows that there is no point in sowing peas really early because temperature dictates when pea pods begin to form. The same pea bushes are still flowering now, but there are also many pea pods. We will soon be eating peas! You can still sow peas now, but it is getting late.  Peas are a spring vegetable that does not like warm weather. Once warmer temperatures arrive pea plants often succumb to mildew.  You can prevent or get rid of mildew with milk spray (see Preventing and Overcoming Mildew).

Beans: Beans are a summer vegetable.  It is too early to sow them now. I am going to harvest my peas and broad beans and then will sow beans in the same area.  By then it will be December. That will be early enough for plenty of beans in February - April.

Big Eater area

The plan was 

Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach and Asian Greens over winter, followed by, for instance, pumpkins, silverbeet, corn, lettuce, radish, zucchini, corn and cucumber over summer

Where are we at?

In my garden broccoli and cauliflower plants have finished. I have removed them and put them on the compost heap.  Six cabbages are still ripening (see photo below). The cabbages are always the last of the winter Brassicas to ripen.

There have been Cabbage Butterflies in my garden for a few weeks now, but I haven't seen any caterpillars yet. It might be too early in the season for them.  I am confident that, without covers or pest control, these cabbages will make it to maturity without too much damage.

With all winter Big Eater crops gone, it will soon be time to once more add compost, complete organic fertiliser (COF) or blood and bone to the Big Eater bed.  No need to hold back! The crops we are going to plant in this bed will need a lot of nutrition.  Root crops would fail if we fertilised them this way, but Big Eaters, well, they eat a lot!

Buying seedlings: these days I grow most of my vegetables from seed, but when I worked full-time I did not have time for that. At nurseries and hardware stores most seedlings will come in punnets.  If you see seedlings that are in their own little growing tubes, snap them up!  Planting them in your garden will mean little transplant-shock. If there are only punnets available, look for ones with small healthy looking seedling that have a healthy colour.  They will be easier to separate than more developed seedlings with intertwined root systems. Always give newly planted seedlings plenty of water with seaweed extract. That will help them recover well.

I may have mentioned in a previous blog post that I don't grow brassicas over summer.  That is because I don't have the space with everything else I want to grow, and because in summer aphids and caterpillars are going to be a problem. I will discuss controlling these pests in the next post in this series.

Pumpkins: every year in November pumpkins tell me when it is a good time to be planted outside. How?  I am quite happy with the compost coming off my compost heaps, but very seldom everything is composted one hundred percent. Sometimes viable pumpkin seeds go on the garden with my compost ... and then these seeds wait.  What do they wait for?  They wait for the soil temperature to reach 21 degrees for a certain amount of time. Every November there comes a moment when pumpkin seedlings appear above ground here and there in my garden. That is a sign that conditions are now fine for planting out pumpkin seedlings.

a pumpkin volunteer in a really bad spot

Nurseries and hardware stores will soon have plenty of pumpkin, zucchini and cucumber seedlings for sale, and the temptation will be to buy them and plant them. However, November last year many of us learnt a lesson. After four weeks of nice weather, temperatures suddenly plunged to near-wintery levels. I lost all my zucchini seedlings in that bit of winter, and my pumpkin seedlings barely survived. A set-back like that can affect plants for the rest of the season, so below is my plan for this summer.

My summer plantings in the Big Eater area will be pumpkin, zucchini, cucumber, iceberg-type lettuce,  kale and radish.  There won't be room for more.  I am going to sow seeds, instead of buying seedlings, around mid October, and hope to plant seedlings in my garden in the last week of November.

When planting out pumpkin seedlings, have a big stick ready for each plant!  After planting, stick a stick in the ground next to each seedling. If all goes well, these plants will grow fast. By January the whole area will be a sea of leaves, and if you don't have some big sticks sticking out above the foliage, you won't know where to water if you water by hand. 

Many people plant pumpkins and zucchinis too close together. This is understandable as seedlings initially don't take much space.  But then they begin to grow.  One Queensland Blue pumpkin plant can take up an entire vegie bed at the end of the season. I don't have a very large garden, so most years I grow Butternut pumpkins. They don't take up so much space! Blog post Small but Tasty Pumpkin Trial tests pumpkin varieties that are better for small gardens.

Corn: If your garden is warm enough corn is best sown direct because that avoids transplant shock. Corn is pollinated by pollen brought by the wind from other nearby corn plants. If you sow all your corn seeds in one long row, the wind is likely to take a lot of pollen elsewhere and, as a result, many kernels in your corn cobs may be missing. Sow your corn seeds, or plant your corn seedling in a number of short rows, so the plants are all together in one patch, with around 45 centimetres between plants and between rows.

Capsicums and chillies: if your garden has 'a mediterranean climate' by all means plant capsicums and chillies in your garden. In our garden the micro climate is too unreliable.  I am going to sow my capsicums and chillies in pots in the next few weeks, and then I will put them in bigger pots in my hot house where they will stay the whole season. That works best for me.

Roots area

The plan was: leek, garlic, spring onions and green manure over winter, followed by carrots, parsnips, beetroot, swedes, radish, turnips over summer.

Where are we at?

There has been garlic in my Roots bed since March.  They are growing well, but are a long way from harvest.  Give them an occasional feed of water + seaweed extract. They will love it. These garlics will be there until late November/early December.

It is now warm enough to sow carrots, parsnips, beetroot, swedes and radish. No need to hurry. You can sow them all the way over spring, summer and autumn, until the cold returns in May, but if you sow them now, your germination might be better because it is not so warm yet, and therefore soils don't dry out too much during the critical germination phase.

Adding fertiliser of any kind is a 'no-no' for this bed.  Forked carrots are a sure sign there was too much fertiliser in the soil.  Root vegetables use their long roots to take nutrients out of soil much deeper than Big Eaters do. Adding fertilisers upsets this process.

In a previous blog post I mentioned that some vegetables must be sown directly in your garden.  Carrots, parsnips, swedes, turnips, radish and beetroot, in fact all vegetables that form a tap root, are in this category.

When getting seed, always buy packets with the latest Best Before date. Parsnip seed is notorious for not being viable for more than a year, so buy the freshest seed available.

Sowing directly can work really well.  It is not hard if you follow a few rules.  Please read Food Garden Group blog post Sowing in Your Garden for all the details.  

Solanums area

The plan was: potatoes and tomatoes

Where are we at?

Some time ago my partner Gaye had noticed that the soil was really dense in the raised bed where the potatoes will go this year.  We dig our vegie beds as little as possible, but this bed needed it.  We added a lot of compost, sand, coir, gypsum and sheep poo, mixed it all thoroughly, and gave it a good dig. That bed will now hopefully be fine for quite a few years.

Please note: we did not add any complete organic fertiliser (COF) or blood and bone to the soil because Solanums do best in good quality soil, but if the soil is rich in nutrients they focus on forming leaves, rather than fruits.

A fortnight ago I planted Pink Eyes, 20 centimetres deep, 30 centimetres between tubers, and then covered the whole bed with sugar cane mulch. It will take around four weeks for any sign of life at the soil surface, but they will come up, and then they will begin to form new spuds in the soil layer above the tubers.

The window for planting potatoes is September - February, depending on the variety. Hilling (adding soil on top) will be the next task, once foliage is visible. For more details see Growing Potatoes on the Food Garden Group blog. A Guide to Potato Varieties can help you decide what type of potatoes to plant.

Tomatoes: I was at Bunnings this morning (23 September) and saw loads of tomato seedlings.  Don't buy them unless you have a hot house, is my suggestion!  Far too early!

In Tasmania the rule used to be that you don't plant tomatoes in your garden until after Hobart Show Day (23 October). Last year we had a wintery spell in November, so my recommendation now is that you plant your tomato seedlings outside some time in November, but the first week in December is also perfectly fine.

The Tasmanian climate is far from ideal for tomatoes. Tomatoes do best in a climate with between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius temperatures continuously. If you sow your tomatoes inside in October (yes, October), and then plant them out when temperatures are more consistently in that range, they will produce more fruit, than if you plant them outside early, and they struggle for the first few cool months. Some of you won't believe me.  If you insist on planting your tomatoes outside early, give them a little mini-hothouse by surrounding them with transparent tree guard sleeves (see photo below). You can buy these at hardware stores.

In early September I sowed tomatoes for my hot house in pots in a heating tray inside (see photo below).   

I have now planted these in large pots in our hot house. I am going to sow the tomatoes meant for outside in first week of October.  That will be early enough to plant them outside sometime in late November.

That's it for the October-November period. Have fun with it all.

This series of blog posts will continue with Veggie Patch Basics 6 (December - January)

Cheers,
Max Bee