What Veggies can we plant this time of year ?

[JDarvall]

Spent all day filling these garden beds with soil from a mate out of town. Hand shovelling in and out of the trucks tray . so I'm stuffed.

So, whats next ? .....what can we plant. Can we plant spinach ok now ? ...the misses uses a lot of it in our cooking. Tomatos ok this time of year ?

I'll check a gardening site, but I always like to hear your guys thoughts.

Thanks.

[Grunt]

Do you still getting frosts this time of year?

[Geoff Dean]

Tomatoes are probably OK to go in now, make sure the ground is warm and no frosts on the horizon.

Zuccinni, onions, carrots, lettuce, capsicums, pumpkin, strawberries
should all be OK depending on where you are.

[watson]

G'day Jake,
Probably any of the spring planting stuff, if you're willing to cover the beds with clear poly on "those clear sky" nights.
Tomatoes probably best to plant on Melbourne cup Day.
Basil two weeks later
Spinach OK now but pick small.
Carrots oversowed with radish seed.
Vietnamese mint, Coriander for a quick crop before it bolts.
Jeez....I feel like Don Bloody Burke.

[JDarvall]

oh dear.....I really don't know what I'm doing.:D

Sounds like you've really got to be quite switched on with gardening.

Thankyou for the help. I'll relay the info to the wife.

Yep, frosts are definetly over. not looking forward to summer.

[Tex79]

I've had Roma and Cherry Tomato's in for three weeks now, they are growing really well. I kept them covered for the first week and a half until they were big enough to withstand the elements.
We've had no frosts for a while now.
Good luck Jake

[Grunt]

Tomatoes are just great. The crap you get at the supermarkets are not tomatoes.

I'd get a few different varieties from www.diggers.com.au. You need to join up but when you do get their how to Grow veggies book. It's really not that hard. You'll make some mistakes but that's part of the fun.

This is a really good year to grow as much as many veggies as you can because the price is going to skyrocket due to the drought.

I'd also grow snow peas, lettuce, corn, basil (good to grow with tomatoes) and potatoes.

You should be able to grow most things if you're not having frosts so I would grow the things you like.

Chris

[Tex79]

Tomatoes are just great. The crap you get at the supermarkets are not tomatoes

I couldn't agree more.

After trying your own home grown vegies and realising what they are actually supposed to taste like, you'll never want to go back to the garbage which is sold in supermarkets.

The biggest surprise for me was capsicum, they are so jucy and full of flavour when home grown.

Evan

[zenwood]

October long weekend is veggie planting time for me. Last weekend I put in:

Tomatoes (grosse lisse this year)
Corn
Zuccini (4 green ones and 4 yellow ones)
Silverbeet spinach
Beetroot
Climbing beans (purple king this year)
Pumpkin (Queensland blue this year)

Plant the corn in a big block so the stalks don't blow over in the wind. Put in the tomato stakes (2 m high), then plant a tomato for each stake. Do you have an active compost heap?

Even managed to combine with some woodworking to sharpen a couple of tomato stakes, and assemble a trellis for the climbing beans.

Mmmm . . . farmer zen is looking forward to harvest:)

Also put in some petunias for good measure.

PS: Order a few bails of pea-straw: makes a beautiful mulch. I get 12 bails to cover my entire veggie patch.

[Andy Mac]

I've had potatoes for a while, and now snow peas, rocket and zucchini are doing well. Just planted rock melon, cherry tomato and corn seedlings.
It seems to be very hot suddenly, only the first month of spring, so I'll be planting beans soon. Yesterday I installed a shade structure made from 2" polypipe and shade cloth over the whole bed, as its so hot already that seedlings are wilting.

Cheers,

[Mcblurter]

Try the Black Russian Tomatoes, bloody buuuuudiful. And as they don't go bright red don't seem to get as many bugs as the others. I'm just about to plant some tommies, capsicums, zucchini, cucumber, basil, sunflowers, spring onions, fennell, and some varieties of lettuce. Luckily my father in law has seeds or has started off the seedlings already so i can spend more time on my reno!!!!
Cheers
McBlurter

[Barry Hicks]

Nobody mentioned the old favourite - sweet corn. As long as your soil temp is above 14 degrees, whack in a crop! Simply follow the directions on the packet and stand back.

What the packet directions don't tell you - if you don't like grubs, spray weekly from when silk appears. Pick 21 days after silk appears.

Can you freeze it? You sure can - 10 minutes in boiling water and dunk in ICE water - almost as good as straight from the garden. Most sweet corn starts to break down as soon as you pick it so either eat it or freeze it.

What else do I know about vege gardening? SFA!

Barry Hicks

[Bluegum]

I put in Beef eater tomatoes, Asian lettuce, bit of bok choy as well as the usual corn and spring onoins. I might get some Lebanese cucmbers and capsicum in this week. I'm looking for a new Thai chilli plant at the moment plus basils and thyme and the like.

[echnidna]

I used to wait til the corn was up 3 or 4 feet then plant climbing peas & beans next to the corn, makes a good trellis

[Studley 2436]

Plane Shaving Jake Plane Shavings

Brilliant mulch breaks down fast enough to be good fertiliser

All you need to do is find a woodworker who is into that darkside stuff

If not chips from your Jointer thicnesser are are really good too

Studley

[zenwood]

Plane Shaving ... Brilliant mulch ...
Trouble with plane shavings is they tend to blow away in the wind (you can ask me how I know this).


Nobody mentioned the old favourite - sweet corn. Yes, I did. Nothing better than going out and picking an armful of corn, bringing it straight inside and into the boiling water, and eating it.


I used to wait til the corn was up 3 or 4 feet then plant climbing peas & beans next to the corn, makes a good trellisNow that's a good idea. Wish I'd thought of that. Will try it out in a few weeks time.

[fenderbelly]

Only plant something that you eat on a regular basis.

My favourites are,

Tomatos = cherry- roma - appolo
Zucchini = Blackjack
Lettuce = Red and green.
Pumpkin = Butternut
Sweet corn = If you have the water!!!!!!!
Carrots = Home grown are so sweet.
Egg plant
Potatos = if you have the space.

[JDarvall]

Plane Shaving Jake Plane Shavings

Brilliant mulch breaks down fast enough to be good fertiliser

All you need to do is find a woodworker who is into that darkside stuff

If not chips from your Jointer thicnesser are are really good too

Studley

not saying your wrong. I just don't know.... something I'm confused about.

Cause some people have told me that shavings arn't good. :?Cause I've got a big pile of the stuff I wanted to throw in these raised beds, but some said it may dry out the bed......So, I ended up just filling it all up with top soil from a farm.

.then maybe too much is no good. are you only supposed to throw a bit in on top around the plants ? (just don't know what I'm doing)

But, I did get in the good books with that outdoor sink I put in. Can see it there between the beds.......I'll show it off:-.......its an old laundry tub with swivel like tap above it so the misses can wash her veggies from our rain water tank...save her back a bit.

[Grunt]

Cause some people have told me that shavings arn't good.

As wood shavings decompose the take nitrogen out of the soil. Once it is fully decomposed it releases the nitrogen back to the soil. To get around this add plenty of chook poo to the shavings before you add them to garden.

Don't plant all of the same plants together. Plant other things in between. This makes it more difficult for pests to destroy the lot. This works for everything except corn which is pollinated by the wind.

Plant basil next to your tomato. They help each other grow and as a bonus they taste really good together. This is called companion planting. Here are some examples.


Beetroot: Onions, Lettuce, Cabbage, Silverbeet
Cabbages: Beans, Celery, Beetroot, Onions, Potatoes
Cauliflower: Celery
Celery & Celeriac: Chives, Leeks, Tomatoes, Dwarf Beans
Carrots: Lettuce, Peas, Leeks, Chives, Onions, Cucumbers, Beans
Broadbeans: Potatoes, Peas, Beans
Tomatoes: Asparagus, Parsley, Broccoli, Sweet Basil
Sweet Corn: Potatoes, Peas, Beans
Mulch, mulch and mulch. Saves water and work.

[Grunt]

Oh, and beans (most) are really good for the soil as they fix nitrogen. That is the get nitrogen from the air and put it in the soil.

[Studley 2436]

Here in dry old Adelaide mulch is a real must have thing.

Woodchips plane shavings etc are all good as a topper that you put on top of the beds to keep the sun off and the water in. They will break down over time which is good to for us here because our soil is heavy in clay so it needs as much plant material in it as you can get in to keep it open.

Just get a nice cover on the top Jake that's all there is to it. Stuff like Pea Straw is good too. You will find stacks of different mulches in your hardware/garden store. Bit of blood and bone or cow manure is good tossed on and watered in too.

Studley

[JDarvall]

Ta for all that. Studley and Grunt.

We're thinking of making a trip one day just to pick up cow dung in the ute...just for the garden.

Mixing chook poo in ......We'll have to get more chooks. Even though we live right in the middle of town, the very night I forgot to lock up the pen, foxes took the lot !....Feed costs so much nowdays. So we havn't been keen to get any more despite missing the eggs. ........ but if we can use up those shavings better with the poo, then maybe we should.

I like that little list there Grunt. I'm going to print that out and stick it on the shed door.

How about sweet potato. Can I grow that ok here ? Thats my favorite......roasted with pumpkins with plenty of butter.

[Grunt]

ABC (http://www.abc.net.au/northcoast/stories/s1495387.htm)

[JDarvall]

:2tsup:thanks.

[fenderbelly]

If you grow zucchinis wait until you pick the first couple of zucchinis
then remove the the leaves from the root end until you only have 4/5 leaves left on the growing end.

The plant will keep on producing as long as you strip the old leaves off and will grow to about 1 1/2 to 2m long.

[JDarvall]

Thanks for your tip. 2 metre long zucchini !

[watson]

G'day Jake,
Just as an aside, when I was learning Veggies 101 (back in the 70's) I planted 16 Black Jack zucchini seedlings.(more is better....so I thought) All survived.
At harvest time...I picked in the morning before work.......picked in the afternoon after work......day after day after week after week.
End result....none of my kids (now in their mid fourties) will even contemplate eating a zucchini!!
Stubbornly, I still love 'em.

[JDarvall]

:D...yes I gota admit I'm not a big fan of them either.

And I get quite cross at myself for not eating them too, cause I know there good for me. And I got to set a good example for my kids.

And squash as well.....any watery green snoty sort of veges :-

But I like everything else. Can't stop eatting those little tomatoes (forgotten what there really called)......bit bigger than grapes. Used to stand around my mothers beds just eating them all day.

[zenwood]

Cherry tomatoes

[fenderbelly]

:D...yes I gota admit I'm not a big fan of them either.

And I get quite cross at myself for not eating them too, cause I know there good for me. And I got to set a good example for my kids.

And squash as well.....any watery green snoty sort of veges :-

But I like everything else. Can't stop eatting those little tomatoes (forgotten what there really called)......bit bigger than grapes. Used to stand around my mothers beds just eating them all day.


Sliced length ways and put on the coolest part of the BBQ they are so tasty.

[dbrewer]

Hello Everyone

This is my very first post and a new member.

It is Christmas right now as i send this (well 23rd lol), and I am thinking of doing a vegie garden next year, the area I have in mind is in full sun and may get a bit of shade.

I live in Rye on the mornington peninsula and oboviously gets cold in winter and warm in summer.

I am wondering what to plant, I am hoping onions, carrotts, Potato's but wouldnt know what else.

Here's hoping I can get some advice.

Regards