Down to Earth: Autumn Preparation
As the summer draws to a close, you’re hopefully all enjoying a bountiful harvest from your efforts in the garden. Cooler, longer nights and more rain signal the approach of autumn. Now is the time to get prepared for the cold winter weather before it’s too late. Here are some key tasks so you’re well prepared:
· Make compost with all the carbon at hand, eg crop residues, seeding grasses, other annuals, herbaceous perennials, comfrey (before it disappears) and mix with manure(s) etc, ready for the busy spring plantings.
· Make a netting ring for deciduous tree leaves to create leaf-mould compost ready for spring potting mix.
· Prepare spare ground for spring; add manure/compost and heavy mulch (eg hay/straw/seagrass).
· Create raised beds to keep soil warmer longer, thus helping with crop growth. Add lots of compost.
· Mulch weedy areas (that haven’t yet been tamed) with black plastic. After about 6 months it can be removed, ground tilled and planted with summer crops in spring.
· Get winter crops in now, eg brassicas (cabbage, etc), celery, silverbeet/chard, and sow beetroot.
· Top shelter/ornamental trees on your northern side to increase light in the winter. Then shred prunings for perennial beds.
· For better growth, build, buy or clean a hothouse, or get cloches ready (Mikroclima cloth is best). Cover sensitive crops such as zucchini, butter beans and creeping cucumbers with cloches.
Fruit care:
· Store summer bounty in boxes in a cool, dry place.
· Summer-prune trees. Remove diseased wood and fruit, burn.
· Prune old canes off berry fruits. Select and tie up strongest new canes.
· Tip grapes. Begin harvest of grapes and passionfruit.
· Watch out for silverleaf in fruit trees and insert bio-dowels into trunks.
· After fruiting remove old strawberry plants, leaving young runner plants. Give extra runners away.
Herb Care:
· Clip back perennials for winter use (eg oregano).
· Last chance to sow/plant annual herbs. Direct sow: dill, parsley and coriander for best results.
Vegetable Care:
· Plant winter crops now, eg broccoli.
· Water well in early morning as required.
· Liquid fertilise weekly with comfrey, especially fruit crops.
· Sow green crops (eg lupin, mustard, rye, corn) on vacant beds for winter/spring plantings.
· Stay observant for pests and diseases.
· For caterpillar pests on brassicas (kale, etc) spray Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) every 2-3 days.
· Prepare asparagus beds by putting compost and manure into trenches for spring planting.
· Thin/harvest carrots. Cover shoulders to avoid carrot rust fly.
· Hothouse: Keep ventilated. Manage pests.
· Harvest main crop potatoes and onions. Store in cool, dry, shady place.
· Keep harvesting beans, zucchinis and tomatoes.
· Harvest sweet corn when tassels brown.
· Tip pumpkins and melons.
· Save seed.
Sow for transplanting: All seeds 9 March. Leafy greens (winter spinach, lettuce, endive, cabbages, silverbeet/rainbow chard, celery and Chinese cabbage). Broccoli and early cauliflowers (best 6 March). Herbs: basil (indoors), parsley etc. Flowers, eg coreopsis.
Sow direct: All seeds 9 March. Radish, beetroot, turnip and swede (best 12-14 March). Spring onions, salads, silverbeet/chard. Peas (best 9-10 March). Flowers, eg cornflower.
Plant: Best now - 4 March. Salad greens, spinach, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, silverbeet/rainbow chard and beetroot. Annual herbs. Flowers, eg delphiniums and bulbs.
General Garden Care:
· Mow lawns with mulch mower.
· Prune back flowering plants.
· Collect seed from annual flowers.
· Plant bulbs.
· Shred prunings.
· Weed and mulch ornamental areas.
· Make and turn composts.
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy. Ph 525 9110.
