Even when its cold and frosty there’s plenty of food to be had from the garden. Here’s a quick round up of what we’re harvesting to inspire you to a four seasons vegie patch.
Leafy greens abound – chard, spinach, parsley, kale, chickweed, cress, miners lettuce, endive, chicory and rocket. Bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage ripen at steady intervals and we pick away at the stash of leeks, carrots, parsnips and yams that store so well in cold winter soils. Celery, beetroot, coriander, bok choy, gai lan and salads galore grow in the protection of the greenhouse.
Yip, I’d say July’s pretty bountiful. Worth a bit of late summer/ autumn legwork don’t you think!
Sow
Direct Sow
- Greencrops after brassicas
- Mizuna
Tray Sow
- Spring onions, red or brown onions
- A mix of brassicas
- Peas into plug trays or toliet rolls
Direct or Tray Sow
- Broadbeans – tray sow on heavy, clay soils
- Spinach, coriander, bok choy and beetroot in the greenhouse
Plant
- Broadbeans, peas and brassicas
- Garlic, spring onions, shallots, potato onions, red or brown onions
- Asparagus
- Horseradish – under fruit trees is a great place for this keen grower
- Salads, bok choy or beetroot in the greenhouse
Regular + odd jobs
Gather OM (organic matter). Your monthly forage is one of your most important garden missions. Find seaweed, manure, leaves, pond weed, old hay – what ever your neighbourhood can spare. Pick up the excess, leaving enough for nature to fulfil her cycles. It’s not about grabbing every last bit – there’s no need when you forage in a little and often way.
Create new gardens. A no dig beginning is the strongest start.
Divide herbs and perennials and spread them far and wide throughout your garden to strengthen your soil, retain water, increase your biodiversity, your homemade mulch supply and bee fodder.
Sort your seed stocks and make sure you have plenty of greencrops, flowers, greenhouse crops, spring crops and all your favourites because next month we get back into seed sowing.
July in the Greenhouse
The chickens are in the greenhouse!
Come July, when the mustard is thigh high and the tomatoes and peppers are done, its time for the chooks to do their bit. I open the wee door in the back of the greenhouse, and let them amongst it. A new adventure (chooks are curious – they love new places!), clean ground (so important for top chook health), and heaps of fresh bugs to eat, is fair trade for weeding + pest control.
I toss in extras – crop debris, organic matter and weeds from the garden for them to incorporate into the soil, along with the old crops, mulch, green crops + their poop. It’s compost making with chooks – hello beautiful soil! With these guys on the job, I don’t need as much compost for my spring plantings.
Birdnets hung from the wires protect our winter greenhouse crops of saladings, bok choy, beetroot and celery from the chooks, keeping the birds exactly where I want them. In this simple, but effective way I can move them round the greenhouse as needed – kind of like mob grazing! As they finish in one area, I sow/ plant it up and screen them into another.