Online food garden chat August 2020

On Sunday 16 August 2020 the Food Garden Group's last online food garden chat for the 2020 winter season took place. We talked about snow peas and peas, beans, biochar, green manure, Oxalis, citrus fruit, Chilean Guava and the layering propagation method. Below is a summary of the discussions.

Veggie Patch Basics - 4 (Aug-Sep)

This fourth episode in the Vegie Patch Basics series looks at the many things that can be done in Tasmanian vegie gardens in August and September, months that on our island surrounded by southern oceans, are often dominated by an unpredictable mix of wind, cold weather, sun and rain.

Veggie Patch Basics - 2 (Apr-May)

In the first blog post of the Veggie Patch Basics series I covered starting a vegetable garden and getting ready for the first round of sowing and planting.  This second blog post covers what to sow and plant in April - May.

Why Green Manure?

Why would you sow seeds and then dig in the resulting lush greenery?  Why bother?

Mulching - Why and How

Many food gardeners have strong opinions about mulching and garden writers report heated discussions on the subject.  Not here.  This blog post will hopefully be an interesting but uncontroversial read.  It might even change the way you use mulch in your food garden.

May in the Garden

Garden Jobs for the merry month of May

Most of the tasks for April still apply in May. Broad beans and garlic can go in as well as broccoli  and winter lettuce seedlings. The cooler months are also the time for spring and salad onions either seedlings or you can sow the seed.

Green Manure
If you have some spare ground over winter consider sowing a green manure crop. When it is about knee high and still green and sappy dig it in for a wonderful start to spring veggie growth.

Pumpkins
If you haven't yet harvested your pumpkins get them in now before the first frosts. I have just brought in the last of mine, a few very late developing butternuts. Keep a good length of vine attached let them harden off in the sun for a few hours and then store  them on their side in a cool airy place.Check regularly for any that show signs of rot. Use these first.

Fruit Trees
If you want to put in new fruit trees this year you should start planning now. Fruit trees are best planted bare rooted in June or July. The link below is for a local nursery speciliasing in heritage varieties mostly on dwarf stock, which means the tree will be smaller and should fruit sooner.They post the young trees out to you. I have managed to fit about 18 such trees into my standard suburban back yard. Their catalogue usually comes out around now.
www.woodbridgefruittrees.com.au