In My Garden - Jan - July 2022

Some people may be a bit reluctant to show people around their garden in the middle of winter. Jan R. lives in Dynnyrne, is a very enthusiastic year-round food gardener, and was very happy to show us what is happening in her winter-garden right now. Good on you, Jan, and thank you for this contribution!

I don't know about you, but I think winter gardens are really beautiful and productive!

In July I still have two varieties of apples on my trees: a miniature tree with delicious sweet red fruit and an unnamed heritage yellow cooking apple which is very tart. My Jonagolds have just finished. Other apples finished ages ago.

 

Already at the beginning of July the buds on fruit trees and ornamentals are fattening up with the promise of blossoms and then delicious fruit.

I am just about to prune my Trevatt apricot now the fruit spurs are prominent. I read somewhere late pruning is better, so I will give it a try.  We gardeners are an adventurous bunch!  (for more info see the foot note at the end of this blog post).

My prunes, Satsuma plums, and gold and black peaches are already pruned.

Here's hoping that stone fruit will be more abundant than last year after our wet spring and smaller crops. The bees just couldn't come out to pollinate because of the wet, and you might recall the winds were dreadful.

I have recently dug the last of the Jerusalem Artichokes, and my word, they were bumper! The photo shows the crop from just one huge plant. Being a sunflower, these plants are allelopathic and may affect crop production in other vegies, with toxins exuded from their roots, so they are best planted alone. In my very small garden this isn't possible. I did only get one fabulous Turks Turban pumpkin this season. Maybe my pumpkins were affected by the artichokes.

My cabbages were badly mauled. The mauler remains unknown. I have moved them into pots against a sunny brick wall, and they are recovering well.

My first crop of broccoli was so infested with aphids I had to throw it away, but the plants have produced side shoots already, and I am hosing them, to get rid of any stray aphids.

I have never been particularly good about fertilising, but recently adopted Max's recommendation to foliar feed with Powerfeed every ten or so days, and it really kicks plants along, even in this cold weather. Definitely worth a try!

I have five or six wire cages dotted around the garden, and they are filled with autumn leaves, composting sheep manure and shredded paper. By spring they will have made a delicious food mix for tomato and capsicum plants. I put an Alsynite sheet along the wire of each cage. That gives the composting material much needed protection from the wind, and it is perfect for making a micro climate.

As you can see from the photos I mainly grow leaf crops and some herbs. 

Chervil (photo below) is the quintessential French herb that just keeps giving! It produces for about five months and will start to seed itself out like mad as the days warm up. It then pops up everywhere with the approach to winter. It has tiny roots so it is non-competitive.

I love Kale. At the moment I have (from left to right) very-ornamental Tuscan Kale (which I use for Kale chips and mixed salads), Blue Kale and Red Russian Kale. They are all delicious if you are a Kale-lover, and about the only pest you have to deal with are aphids, which I blast away with the hose.

   

Broadbeans (photo below) are one of the few plants which are happy with ash from the fire.  Come spring, ash can also be thrown over pear and cherry trees to control Pear & Cherry Slug. One application is usually adequate.

I also grow Beetroot, more for the leaves than the beets, because I love Beetroot leaves.

  

I have tried to plant food-plants in as many places as possible, but perhaps I need to look at removing more of my ornamental garden. This is something I have resisted so far.

Happy gardening to you all. Isn't it marvellous how much we can grow in winter? What a wonderful health tonic food gardening is!

Foot note: Cuts heal slowly when peach and apricot trees are pruned while dormant. Fungi may enter the cuts if the weather is cool and rainy.