In My Garden - Lian July 2020

In My Garden - Lian July 2020

Winter has arrived in Tasmania, with regular snow on the mountain, cold nights and crisp sunny days.
In Lian's garden in Lauderdale there is still plenty to eat and enjoy, and of course there is always the planning ahead for the warmer seasons to come. Join Lian for a walk in her winter garden.

It’s definitely winter in my Lauderdale garden. There’s not a lot happening except brassicas and root crops, but they are going well.

I had a net over these until a couple of days ago, when I suddenly realised the cabbage white butterflies had disappeared. Netting seems to work well to keep them out, as long as the holes are small enough. Broccoli and cauliflower plus coriander.

A few frosts, and my swedes are really picking up the flavour. The cabbage moths loved them, and so does the mildew, but they are still doing well.

My absolute favourite of the cauliflowers – violet Sicilian. Not just a gorgeous colour, but seems tastier than the white ones.

These are the bedraggled remnants of the carrots, parsnips and beetroot, with a few forgotten onions.

The rest of my beds are in green manure. I’m putting more effort into it this year, as the raised beds seem to really need this input. Last year some of them dried out too much, so I’m hoping more organic matter in the soil will fix this.

I have found these blue bins the perfect size for growing pumpkins, sweet potato and capsicums. One of my neighbours brings them home from his job at a milk company, cuts them in half and drills holes in the bottom.

Up until a few weeks ago I had my raspberries in this back corner, but the rust has been getting worse and worse, so I took them out. In their place is a new greengage and a new Santa Rosa plum, both to replace others that had died.

When I first moved into this house 29 years ago, the sultana grapevine was very productive, but as the years passed the mildew grew worse and worse, until I was hardly getting any grapes. Five years ago we cut the tangled mess right back to the original trunk, and now every year I do the same, leaving only a few new branches for fruiting. This works well, and it produces beautifully.

A very unwelcome visitor that has cropped up in one of my garden beds. Not sure what I’m going to do about it, as it is a raised bed and it has come up from below, so I can’t dig it out.

I always have a good crop of Warrigal greens, which spread with enthusiasm. They make a good groundcover, and are also nutritious, as long as they are cooked first.

This one is a welcome visitor, self-sown Blackberry nightshade, not to be confused with deadly nightshade. A nice sweet treat when the rest of the fruit has finished. This year it cropped up under one of my apple trees.

And lastly, the new raspberry bed, well away from the old one, is raised, which is going to make it a lot easier to weed and prune.