What to plant and do in the Melbourne garden this month
What to plant…
- Veggies: It’s truly cold now, but there’s still hope for new plantings. Don’t expect them to move fast until spring, but you can plant cabbage, asian greens like mizuna, tatsoi or pak choi, lettuce, rocket, spinach, mustards, spring onions, leek, onions, radish and parsley. Put some sweet peas in the ground and watch them climb.
- Winter bulbs and crowns: It’s now time to buy asparagus and rhubarb crowns, and organic garlic cloves for a summer harvest. Consider Jerusalem artichokes, square metre for square metre the most productive energy crop for our climate (although some find the taste less good than potatoes.) For our Melbourne customers, we recommend Ceres (www.ceres.org.au) and Bulleen Art and Garden nurseries (www.baag.com.au).
- Green manures: Since nothing grows too fast anyway, you might consider planting a cover crop to dig in to the soil come spring time. This time of year try broad bean (buy them in bulk as fava beans from Middle Eastern groceries), field pea, oats and wheat.
Fertilising, mulching and watering
- There’s no longer as much need to water, although your soil might occasionally use a recharge if we get a dry week or two. Water less often but water long and deeply. Watering while it’s raining lightly is actually a good time to do this! If you have an automated tap timer, consider turning the tap off after rain, and turning it back on in dry spells.
- With overcast winter weather upon us we can consider raking up mulch to expose the dark soil, allowing it to warm up under the day’s sunshine. However be sure to return it by mid spring.
- There’s generally not much need to fertilise at this time of year, as plants are growing slowly or dormant.
Pest control
It’s not just the plants that have slowed down it’s the pests too. If you’ve got any problems from aphids or caterpillars, consult last month’s info here.
Plan your future garden
If you want to grow food for spring but haven’t got your own garden yet, now is a great time to install and plant a garden. Not sure where to start? We can help you with customised DIY sustainable timber raised garden bed and wicking bed kits to suit your garden, or we can install any of these options for you.
