AUGUST - EDIBLES - GARDENERS, GET READY!
TIME TO HARVEST...
Citrus will be ripe through the cooler months, perfect for the intake of Vit C to ward off winter ills & chills. Got a surplus of lemons? Slice them up and freeze in a container, great for drinks in the non-citrus season. Keep using the winter vegetables to open up space for spring planting.
Note: leave brassica foliage on the ground after picking as it contains good levels of potash, phosphorus, and nitrogen which gets released back into the soil.
TIME TO PLANT...
What to eat, what to plant? We’re almost at the tricky ‘in-between-seasons’ time of year in the vege garden with Summer veges some way off. Fast-growing cool-weather-loving Pak Choi is easy. Garlic is now available in punnets if you missed out on the bulbs.
Asparagus crowns, brassicas for spring, celery, chitted seed potatoes (keep them mounded up for frost protection), lettuces, pak choi (perfect for the cooler seasons of spring & autumn), silverbeet, spinach, trees (fruit & ornamentals) & strawberries.
If you put in green crops for Winter leave them standing until you need that space for planting; they break down into the soil quickly, providing nitrogen.
TIME TO SOW...
French Red Shallots are available for planting now. Shallots are a delicious sweeter, milder version seeds of pak choi, garlic, onions, parsley, lettuces, broad beans, & brassicas. To get a headstart for summer varieties that take longer to mature sow seeds indoors – capsicum, eggplants, tomatoes, pumpkins, melons; this means developing sturdier roots before transferring outdoors in the warmer weather. Keep chitting seed potatoes for constant crops through the season.
Start thinking seeds as we head into August next week – by the time the seeds have reached the right size for planting out the temperatures should be spot on. Use seed trays in a sunny position from the beginning of August on as long as the frost-tender varieties are given protection. Clean out the seed trays and use fresh seed-raising mix.
TIME TO FEED...
Rhubarb is a gross feeder so keep it fed through the season, using animal manure-based feed – Dave’s Growth Booster with sheep pellets & southern humates.
Fruit trees around the dripline with potash-rich fruit tree food. Potash is vital for flower & fruit formation. Citrus are winter-fruiting so feed now to replenish reserves.
TIME TO PROTECT...
Seedlings against frost and birds, using plastic-covered cloches, along with slug bait for young seedlings. Continue frost protection for citrus with frost cloth.
TIME TO CONTROL...
Weeds before the warming weather speeds up their growth and delays your spring planting.
Turning regular-sized trees into dwarf trees – Evergrow bags in stock, great way of keeping trees down to a smaller size. Sink the Evergrow bag into the soil and plant the tree – the bag will restrict the root growth. Easy way to grow pollinators for fruit trees when you have limited space.
TIME TO PRUNE...