HELLO to any new food gardeners.

Welcome to the family!

A bit of housekeeping to begin…

Please, stop planting corn!

And for that matter, please stop planting pumpkin, tomato, capsicum, eggplant, zucchini, chilli, beans, okra and basil.

These are all warm season plants.

If you have these seeds, congratulations, you are all set for spring.

They won’t grow and feed you now.

Welcome to seasonal, local food.

You can plant potatoes now and through June and after that it will be too hot for them as they attempt to mature.

If you get Italian garlic in right away you should be alright, before April 25 is best.

Russian garlic can go in two weeks later.

You might get away with cherry tomato seedlings, not the big tomatoes.

There are self sown ones going bonkers in my garden right now.

They won’t produce once winter really hits ie from mid June.

What to plant now?

Plant what you like to eat!

It helps with getting used to using what you grow.

Plus there’s no motivation to do the daily check-in for food you don’t know or don’t like.

Easy to grow here for winter
• Broadbeans; eat the beans in Sept / Oct and the leaves anytime
• Snowpeas; and peas if you’re in a colder patch
• Radish; including daikon
• Silverbeet and chard.
• Kale; you kale lovers will be pleased to hear this stuff is so hardy it would survive a nuclear winter.
• Cabbage; may be a challenge for beginners but the leaves are edible even if you don’t get a proper cabbage head
• Asian greens; pak choy, bok choy, gai choy, choy sum, wombok, Chinese broccoli, Japanese spinach
• Rocket
• Lettuce; all kinds, butter, mustards, wasabi, tatsoi
• Spring onion, chives; way easier and way quicker than onions
• Coriander; this is the best time of year for it!

Not for beginners

Most of the chunky fruiting vegetables are just harder to grow well than the leafy ones.

You can give these a go, it’s their season over the cool months, but don’t expect store bought quality: Cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, parsnip, leeks, turnips, onion, beetroot.

For more detail go to www.wherefishsing.com and look under Bello Food Gardening.

Supported by Bellingen Shire Council via the Bellingen Shire Disaster Recovery and Resilience Grant Program Funding.

 

By Fiona MORGAN