In My Garden - Dirk and Pauline - May 2022

 In My Garden - Dirk and Pauline - May 2022

Like most places in southern Tasmania, here in Howden we've had a rollercoaster of a growing season, with a cool and wet spring into December, then no worthwhile rain for months, followed by the massive downpour over the Mother’s Day weekend. After which we were confident the burn-off we did for making charcoal for biochar was properly extinguished...

Every garden has its own issues; ours are wildlife and sunlight. Because of the possums, pademelons, wallabies, rabbits, bush hens and fruit-loving birds we pretty much can’t grow anything unless it is in a cage. However, we’re trying to grow a Chilean guava outside (growing ok but slow; it will be a while yet before it gets up to covering David’s bum) and we grow skirrit and artichoke in defiance of the possums (so far so good).

The sunlight issue in our garden is caused by the tall forest on the northern side of the garden. In summer there is no problem, but in winter there isn’t much sun in the veggie garden at all. Bed 4 gets the least sun and we’ve had to drop it off the regular rotations: not much good for tomatoes or beans. It now gets used exclusively for 'quick things' like lettuce, radish, silverbeet, Asian greens, and it has room for a parsley patch. We find that crop rotation works well to avoid diseases and poor performance, but it is an ongoing struggle to find a free spot for the next crop while the previous one is still going. Maybe we need to be more ruthless…

The old lemon tree is about to be phased out after 8 years of trying to grow it in too dark a location. 

In spring we planted a new one and a cumquat in another cage next to our woodshed where there is much more sunlight and warmth, and so far they seem to like it there.

This was our first year of trying to grow cabbages under a net against the cabbage butterfly. It kept the caterpillars away and by the time we took the net off, the bed was bursting at the seams.

The cauliflowers were great...

… but unfortunately, so were the aphids! Unhappy Brussel sprouts. Next time, we will try to give them a little more airflow and bigger plant spacing.

Our tomatoes didn’t have a good year. We harvested enough for (late) summer use but didn’t end up with enough for passata. Normally our cherry tomatoes keep going well into May but not this year: the plants went backwards quickly in early April. On the upside though, that meant the bed was prepared for garlic and onion by mid-April and planted on 1 May. Hopefully this will make for large garlic come December!

Our kiwifruit has gone great this year and produced a fair crop for the first time, ready to be harvested once the leaves have dropped in winter.

Our loganberry in the chicken run also had a great year. Fresh fruit for desserts and making fruit wine, as well as a heap more frozen for later. This was over summer; all the vines that carried fruit have now been taken off and the new monsters have been tied up for next season. 

We have found through trial and error that we have more success sowing carrots in a block rather than in rows. It does mean there is a need for some pretty rigorous thinning, which a bit later on combines with harvesting. Somehow carrot harvesting is very satisfying. They smell great and (after a quick wipe) taste amazing straight from the ground. 

And finally, our apiary has grown to three hives over summer. As beginning beekeepers, we were proud and excited until we discovered to our horror that all three hives were starving in early April. Due to the dry summer, there has been very little nectar in the flowers and the girls had been using up their winter stores already. We have since fed them lots of sugar syrup. It looks like we were just in time: they should have enough stores now to last them through winter.