last gasp harvest

[tielan]

Report from a late summer garden (in the southern hemisphere):

Harvest and planting for winter.

My area in Australia is mild enough that cool-weather leafy greens do pretty well over winter, so long as you protect them from frost.

I know most of you equatorially-north folks are just getting into planting times for your gardens - what do you plan to grow this year (and how's that coming along), and is there anything new you're going to try this growing season?

Speaking for myself, I'm trying to grow: cabbage, cauliflower, bok-choy, raab broccoli (I've never had luck with regular broccoli), rocket, brussel sprouts, onions (both the ones you use the leaf stalk and the ones you store the bulb), carrots, parsnips, sugarbeet, and the usual run of beetroot (which I have finally worked out how to cook: bake in individual wrappings of foil, and then after 40 mins, put a dob of butter on top and bake for another 40 mins).

Comments

[ladybrooke]

We're planting tomatoes, corn, beans, watermelons, green peppers, a single red pepper plant, cantaloupe, lettuce, and maybe zucchini and squash. We already had the first three planted, but then flooding happened, and it all died/washed away. :/ The lettuce and cantaloupe are new! I'm hoping they grow well.

I hope everything you're trying to grow turns out well!

[tielan]

Ugh, flooding. Whereabouts are you, if you don't mind saying? And are you going to grow the corn/beans/squash in a Three Sisters configuration like the native Americans used to? An Australian farm - Melliodora - had a blog post about it earlier this year, detailing their experience with it (in an Australian context, of course), but might be worth looking at?

[ladybrooke]

I'm in Southern Indiana, near Louisville, Kentucky - on the eastern side of the American midwest. Probably not! Mainly because our squash plants tend to go nuts and kill everything near them, and I'd rather not have to deal with my step-dad sulking if they strangled his beans. :P On the other hand, the anthropologist in me would like to experiment with planting that way.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Last year I helped with a Three Sisters planting. Sadly the squash vines weren't enough to keep the chipmunks out of the corn.

[tielan]

Ah yes, the eternal issue of garden pests and how to stop them stealing the harvest...

I'm curious now, how do you keep chipmunks out of corn? Fence the corn away?

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

They were fenced, but the gauge was too large. I think the real method is going to depend on consulting with the hawks.

[ladybrooke]

Our main problems are deer, rabbits, and birds. :/ I have yet to come up with a solution that will keep all three away, especially since none of them but the deer are scared of the dogs.

[dirtygreatknife]

Another Aussie here--I'm in South Australia. I put in cabbage, onions, spring onions, carrots and radish. I hope they all grow!

[tielan]

Have you grown cabbage and onions and radish before? If so, do you have any tips? I've managed spring onions and carrots (they got too crowded and ended up looking more than a little monstrous and forked), but not the others.

I just got my quarterly Diggers' Club magazine this afternoon, and they have so many bare-rooted fruit and nut trees available! I'm absolutely drooling, wanting to just plant up the front fenceline of our place...

[liana]

I've had no luck with onions, but for carrots check that your soil is loose enough. Dense or compacted soil could be the cause of forking. You may want to add some organic material such as compost or peat moss. Also some sand or gypsum. When they start looking crowded, pull some to thin them out. I use the thinned roots for snacks and throw the greens in soup or salad.

[tielan]

Yeah, I've sown them in loose soil this year, so we'll see how it works out. And yes, lots of organic material in the bed!

[dirtygreatknife]

Cabbage, no. It does seem VERY happy with compost around it and a good drink of Seasol, mind you everything seems to like that. I was recommended a food call GroRite, which is from hydroponics stores, and I've seen the results from that from the guy who rec'd it to me, so I'm definitely buying a bottle of it.

The biggest problem I've had is when it rains for days and you're at the mercy of the aphids. I use neem oil to control those, but when it's raining, it gets washed off, which is frustrating! The radish are quite happy left to themselves, but they love a lot of water, so it's best to make sure the soil doesn't dry at all during those dry periods. Part sun, too, so they're in pots under the semi-shade of my giant sage plant.

I love Diggers, it's such an awesome place. I'm looking forward to visiting the one in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens on Friday, I have no doubt I'll buy more plants!

[tielan]

It does seem VERY happy with compost around it and a good drink of Seasol, mind you everything seems to like that.

True! :) I stole some actual seaweed from the beach during the Sydney heatwave in February, and it's still making seaweed brew for me. But I also have bottles of seasol which I really should use up...

Ooh, enjoy the gardens! Living in Sydney, it's a bit far for me to get to their gardens, but if I ever make it down there, I'm definitely going to check it OUT!

[dantesspirit]

7 different tomatoes, 8 different peppers, tomatillos, eggplant, asparagus, cantelope, watermelon, zucchini, butternut squash, cucumbers, spaghetti squash, loofa squash, green beans...

[tielan]

Neat! That sounds like a wonderful range of food!

Are tomatillos a common food in the US? I'd barely heard of them until a friend from the US bought seeds and ended up passing them along to me since she had two children in three years and didn't have the time or energy to do the garden she'd originally planned.

Also, have you done cantelope and watermelon before? If so, do you have any advice on how to get them decently sized? I managed to grow both fruits to the size of baseballs, and then...they wouldn't grow any further. They were tasty, but tiny, and almost not worth the growing effort!

(Of course, this was better than previous years where they didn't produce a single fruit...)

[dantesspirit]

They're used a lot in Tex-Mex style food, like in a green chile sauce instead of tomatoes.}:)

We've tried cantalope before and they didn't produce. So this is an experiment to see if we can get any this year. Heh.

But the weather might have something to do with it too. If its hot and dry, they may not grow well. So I'd try keeping them very thoroughly watered, maybe that would help some.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Good luck with your cantaloupes!

[bridgetmkennitt]

I want to try and grow lettuce in my apartment, mostly so I can eat it whenever it's ready to be harvested and not have to depend so much on my grocery stores if I want to eat a salad. I'm in the process of reorganizing my apartment though, so I have to wait until I can figure out a good placement before I can purchase the seeds and grow them.