As harvest time draws to a close, it's time to fill up the vegetable patch again with more produce to enjoy over the cooler months.
What to sow
Sow hardy all year round vegetables such as beetroot, spinach, carrots, winter lettuce, radishes and silver beet. Use Tui Seed Raising Mix as a base to ensure optimum results.
Carrots will take a week or two to germinate but will establish themselves before too long. Thinning of carrots is important in the autumn and winter as the growth is slower, and thinning enables the roots to develop faster.
You can plant most seedlings you will find at the garden centre. Seedlings are a brilliant way to fast track the harvest in the vegetable garden. Now is the perfect time to plant all members of the brassica family - cabbage and caulis and broccoli, bok choy, kale, cavalo nero - as they enjoy the cooler temperatures. Plant at least two-hand widths apart as they will quickly grow. View the Tui Time how to grow vegetables web video at www.tuigarden.co.nz for more growing tips.
Spinach and silver beet enjoy autumn conditions and harvesting can begin within a month or so after planting. Select outer leaves to use first.
Salad greens can be sown or planted. Mesclun mix will happily germinate and grow through the winter months. Rocket, mizuna, corn salad, chicory and kale will feed you for months on end if kept well watered and regularly harvested. Lettuce Drunken Lady, a red frilly type of lettuce, thrives in the winter, maybe because it likes a constant supply of liquids (a bit like someone else I know). It proves to be a reliable and popular choice for the flavour and its cheeky name. Red-leafed radicchioplant more
is a cool season crop too. Seeds are probably the best option for this as plants aren't widely available. Slugs and snails are still around.
If you do decide to put up the closed sign for the winter, you may like to give your garden and yourself a holiday. Treat your soil to a green manure crop; unlike the name suggests no animals are required for this. It's an old term, which means to plant a crop - Tui mustard and lupin are popular choices. These act like manure by feeding the soil. These easy-to-grow plants fix nitrogen from the air into the soil once the plants are dug into the soil in late winter. Your soil will reward you with healthy and tasty vegetables next season with a well-earned break over the winter.
Top tip:
Don't remove broccoli plants once you have cut the first head. Smaller heads of broccoli will appear in a few weeks below where the first one was and continue to sprout for the rest of the season.
