The First Day of Winter in the Home Garden
Winter has arrived and that sees the onset of damp, shadowy patches in the garden. The sun is lower and we see less of it. Overnight temperatures have plummeted and the days are crisp and fresh. Autumn leaves continue to fall from fruit trees and create a colorful carpet on the soil. The soil is now cold and that means winter crops are being sown.
Here is a tour of our shadowy garden to show what is being harvested and sown.
The Onion Tribe goes in!
Every year we produce a large crop of brown onions and garlic. They are simple to grow once you get a few basic sorted out. Here are the key tips:
- Lime the soil well at least a month before planting - onions dislike acid soils (see photos 1 & 2 in gallery)
- Rotate onion crops every year to a new bed so that diseases don't build up
- Plant now in Victoria! In Aireys Inlet I have most success with garlic and brown onion when planted in early June.
- Onions don't like manure in the soil so it's best to plant out a bed that is well drained and hasn't had lots of nitrogen applied (eg. blood and bone)
- Garlics don't mind a bit more nitrogen and remember they love lots of water once the bulbs start to develop in spring and early summer
- These crops take 6 months to mature so you need to be patient
In the photo gallery:
1 to 2 - lime applied to the soil a month before planting
3 - compost added to soil for garlics to increase nutrients
4 to 5 - garlic bulb pulled apart and planted with sprout end up!
6 to 9 - rows and rills created for onion seeds; to a depth of about a pen; and backfilled with a mix of course sand a garden soil to a dept of 5mm
Seeds sown for late winter planting
By late winter there will be more spaces for spring crops to go in. My tip is to start growing spring crops now in seed trays. I raise these behind a window in the home office over the winter. Some go straight from trays to garden beds in late winter ... others get potted out and remain behind the glass until they grow to a bigger size for planting in early to mid spring.
In these trays I have seeds of peas, silver beet, lettuce, spinach, beetroot, spring onions, cabbage, cauliflower and brocholli
Harvesting now!
The final tomatoes have been harvested, including the green ones. Chillies continue to amaze! We'll be digging up fresh carrots right through winter thanks to a planting of carrot seeds in early March. Our Japanese Seedless Madarine in pumping out the juiciest and tangiest fruit of it's short life!
For eating in Spring
And here are some other crops that went in a month ago and are happy to grow in colder soils.
1 Coriander is a must for every winter garden
2 Leeks are a delight with potatoes in soup in Spring
3 Garlic raises it's first leaves above the soil
4 Raspberry Canes tied up and mulched heavily
5 Stawberry runners planted and now growing
6 Broad Beans are prolific come spring (and fix nitrogen into the soil)
7 to 8 Lettuce and Spinach is consumed daily (once sping hits and soil warms these will bolt quickly to seed red inions will follow)
