Produce Swappers Gardening Tips January 2021
Hi everyone and welcome to 2021. Here’s to continuing the boom in backyard food production minus the lockdowns and isolation! Fingers crossed!
Remember that to participate in our monthly produce swap you don’t have to just stick to vegetables – we also have swappers who bring along seeds, eggs, preserves, homemade cakes or bikkies, cuttings of favourite plants, bunches of herbs or flowers, cuttings or potted up indoor plants and ornamentals, bulbs, clean jars for preserving….the possibilities are endless. Also, if you don’t have anything to swap that’s ok – just bring something to next month’s swap. It all works out in the end.
* Also don't forget to bring along your oral care products, writing instruments, disposable razors, contact lenses and their packaging to our Terracycle and battery collection point at the produce swap stall. Save these items from going to landfill and support this great community initiative.
IN THE GARDEN:
It’s a good time to be topping up mulch around fruit trees and veggies. A thick layer of mulch (with a gap around the stems of your plants to avoid rotting) not only helps to slow evaporation but also insulates the topsoil against extreme temperatures. This is important for plant roots, but the moisture and more stable temperature also allows earthworms and microorganisms to colonise that top layer of soil. Make sure that you give the garden a very thorough soaking BEFORE mulching as mulch can also create a barrier to water penetration from rain or hand watering if it and the soil underneath are too dry.
Summer pruning of fruit trees can start to be carried out now or planned for after fruiting. If you are unsure about when and why to prune different fruit trees there is a basic run down here courtesy of Pip permaculture magazine.
Sow now: Beetroot, carrot, lettuce, Asian greens, radishes, rocket, silverbeet, spring onion, turnips
Plant now (as seedlings): Leeks, celery, lettuce (can be a good idea to use shadecloth or insect mesh to give shelter from hot sun), Asian greens including mizuna, mustard, pak choi, tatsoi (these can tolerate sun and heat only if watered consistently), parsley, silverbeet and rainbow chard, perpetual spinach, surprisingly brassicas such as broccoli, cabbage, kale and cauliflower will establish well in the heat and will then mature as the weather cools down in the autumn (water well and be sure to protect from cabbage moth with insect netting).
Finally, because it’s a great time to grow a crop of carrots I wanted to share some top tips for successful sowing:
Carrots grow much, much better from seed than from seedlings but people often struggle (especially in Summer) to get good germination.
*Mix your carrot seed with sand (I have to admit that I raid my kids’ sandpit for this!) as this helps to distribute the seed more evenly along your rows.
*Thoroughly wet the prepared bed before sowing – that way you don’t have to disturb the carrot seed too much when you water them in after sowing - instead you can very gently water to moisten everything down.
*After sowing and watering then cover the bed with wet layers of cardboard and weigh it down with bricks or rocks so that they can’t blow away. Keep the cardboard wet for five-seven days after sowing (also peek underneath and lightly water if you think the bed beneath is drying out) and then remove. This ensures that the small carrot seed can’t either dry out or blow away during the germination phase. After five to seven days remove the cardboard and continue to keep the bed moist until your seedlings establish. This technique was a total game-changer for me when I learnt about it years ago. Once they have germinated carrots are an extremely easy crop to care for and their taste is incomparable to bought ones.
Happy gardening and we hope to see you on the Village Green!
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