Broad beans
The nights are getting cooler but I just love the fresh days filled with colour and sunshine. The onset of soil cooling heralds the best time to plant cool-loving crops such as peas, garlic and broad beans. Getting crops in the ground now is important if you want fresh produce in the spring.
Hated by some and loved by others, broad beans offer a nutritious staple when the garden is somewhat lean in spring. Native to North African and Southwest Asia, these are thought to be the earliest cultivated bean, before 6000BC. They are rich in protein, amino acid (lysine) and minerals. They can be eaten as young pods, later shelled out or as dried beans. Leafy tips can be eaten once you start to harvest the pods. A caution though, as some people are allergic to them, so try just a few if it’s your first time.
There are several types, including red, purple and green seeded, broad and long-podded), Windsor type (better flavour, lower yield) and dwarf (about half metre tall; don’t require staking).
Soak seed in seaweed solution overnight. Sow successive plots of broad beans into free-draining, recently limed soil 5-8cm deep, 15cm apart with rows 40cm apart. Plant in blocks four rows wide. Add potash in the form of wood ash, comfrey leaves or paten kali mineral fertiliser. Mulch with seaweed. When they get about a metre high, provide support with stakes and string lines. Good companions include calendula, heartease, viola, poppy and vetch.
Not only are they a versatile crop, filling a gap, but they also fix nitrogen in the soil and can be used simply as a green crop (turned in at flowering stage).
Fruit care
Prune pipfruit.
Remove diseased or insect-infested fruits and leaves from around trees.
Sow orchard understorey plants and plant spring bulbs.
Cut understorey down and mulch around trees.
Feed orchard with dolomite lime, rock phosphate, manure and woody compost.
Prepare new strawberry beds. Let runners grow to replace old plants.
Spray fruits with liquid seaweed as a tonic.
Also spray citrus with all-purpose oil for scale insect, thrips or aphid (or use garlic and pyrethrum).
Prune citrus when harvesting.
Herb care
Complete herb seed harvest.
Sow seed of rosemary, thyme and chives.
Transplant rooted cuttings from last year. Take cuttings of rosemary, sage, lavender etc.
Weed and mulch.
Vegetable care
Keep weeding and make lots of compost.
Prepare garlic beds. Plant rocambole (serpent garlic).
Harvest pumpkins when tendrils and stalks brown off. Collect dry beans for seed. Shell and dry in airing cupboard before storing with some rice.
Save seed from best salads, silverbeet, leeks, etc. (Process-clean, dry, freeze and store).
Prepare ground (add lime and compost) for broad beans and peas, and sow.
Plant winter brassicas in a fertile bed.
Sow/plant salads and winter greens for ongoing supply, eg corn salad, miner’s lettuce, mizuna and rocket.
Sow and plant lots of flowers to attract beneficial insects.
Hothouse: Clean for better light. Liquid fertilise weekly. Keep well ventilated. Spray diluted milk solution vs powdery mildew.
For transplanting: All seeds 26th May. Leafy greens (summer spinach, spinach beet, lettuce, endive, Chinese cabbage and cabbages), red onions, broccoli, cauliflower. Flowers, eg Love-in-a-mist.
Sow direct: All seeds 26th May. Mesclun salad. Peas and broad beans. Radish, spring onions, spring carrots (cover)(also 24th – 25th May). Flowers, eg pansies.
Plant: Salad greens, silverbeet/chard, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages. Flowers, eg bulbs.
General garden care
Lime the lawn.
Soil test garden and orchard areas (try www.hillslaboratories) and organise minerals to offset deficiencies.
Deadhead herbaceous perennials like dahlias.
Prune trees and shrubs after flowering, including roses.
Make lots of compost. Turn heaps.
Collect leaves for leaf mould compost ring.
Collect seaweed/seagrass.
Mulch citrus and ornamentals with grass clippings.
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy
