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In the Veggie Path - December (southern hemisphere)
Sit back and enjoy the festive season this month. Hydrangeas
make a wonderful Christmas display with their giant "mop heads"
in shades of white, blue and pink. Often it's too hot to do too
much in the garden now and Christmas shopping seems to take
precedence anyway. Many of you might venture on a summer holiday
around now, so I've included a few handy tips before you go.
Holiday Care
Take care of your precious work in the garden by ensuring that a
neighbour or friend can do some watering if you go away.Make
sure the garden is heavily mulched with at least 5cm (and
preferably 7 or 8cm) of straw, sugarcane mulch, compost and pea
straw. If you use fresh grass clippings don't lay them as
heavily or it may go sludgy.Keeping the garden covered in a
thick layer of mulch will keep down the need for watering so
much and will also keep out the unwanted weeds. Soak all of your
pot plants for several days leading up to your departure and
place them in a shady part of the garden when you leave. You
could try to rig up some shadecloth temporarily over sensitive
plants or areas of the garden if you're concerned about them.
And don't mow your lawn too low before you go, otherwise you
might find it completely dead by the time you get back.
What to sow
Start sowing your winter crops this month. This includes all of
your cabbage family plants like cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels
sprouts and Chinese vegetables. By the time they're a reasonable
size for planting out, the weather should be starting to cool
down. Carrots, beetroot, parsley, celery, leek and silverbeet
are all winter crops so they can be sown now too.
Special care of seedlings needs to happen over the next few
months to make sure they survive the heat. Be vigilant with
daily watering and sometimes twice a day in really hot weather.
I plant my seedlings out with cardboard milk cartons around
them. This gives them a bit more protection from critters and
gives a bit of extra shade.
Successful veggies You should be able to harvest a few
"new" potatoes now if you can't wait. New potatoes are the young
ones just under the surface, simply forage around under the topp
layer of soil and pick a few off. The bigger ones can be dug up
all at once after the tops die off later on.
Tomatoes start to come on from now also. They'll stay green
until the weather is consistently warm to ripen the fruit. If
you got in some early plants then you'll have some lush red
tomatoes for Christmas lunch. Mulch around the tomatoes and corn
to give them constistent water and nutrients. Keep picking
things like cucumber, zucchini and leafy vegetables to encourage
more cropping. You can almost watch zucchinis growing before
your eyes!!
Successive planting means planting out seedlings every month to
get a continual supply of veggies. So even if you have a few
plants producing a crop now, still sow what ever you can to
extend the harvest for a few months more. An easy way of getting
another tomato plant quickly is to take a cutting by snipping of
one of the "laterals" (or side shoots) with a clean cut, dip it
in some rooting powder, stick it in a small pot of seed raising
mix, tie a plastic bag over it after giving it some water and
wait for about a week. Roots develop quickly and you'll have a
new plant ready for the garden in a short time.
Pinch out growing tips of cucumbers, pumpkins and squash to
encourage side shoots. These side shoots produce more flowers
and keep the plant contained. Give regular liquid feed for all
of your vegies especially leafy crops. Steep some chicken manure
in water and use that for your leafy crops since it is full of
nitrogen. But remember to dilute it to the colour of weak tea
and apply it only after you've watered the garden, otherwise you
risk burning the roots.
The Flower Garden
Hydrangeas give a fantastic focal point to a shady part of
the
garden. They like to be kept moist so keep the water up to them
now. Did you know that you can change the colour of your
hydrangea flowers depending on whether your soil is acid or
alkaline?From about July, just keep adding lime to the soil to
make them pink or add sulphur to make them blue.Do this for a
few months and they'll be right for a December display.
Don't be fooled into thinking that there is something wrong with
your poinsettia in the garden because it isn't red like the ones
in the shops. Poinsettia turns red in cooler months and are used
for a Christmas focus in the Northern hemisphere. So the plants
you see in the nursery are all ""forced"" into what you see.
Large blinds covering green houses simulates winter, as does
temperature controlling. These plants are then sprayed with
dwarfing hormone to produce the showy little Christmas features
that we often see. Get away from our northern hemisphere legacy
for Christmas this year and make a garland of gardenias instead.
Gardenias' heavenly fragrance alone is enough to bring about a
state of peace and joy for all mankind at Christmas!!
Dig up spring bulbs and store them over summer in a cool airy
spot. Otherwise split them up and reposition them around the
garden if the clumps are getting too big and not flowering well.
Some bulbs, like tulips and daffodils need a cold winter to
produce a good flower display. If you don't get really cold
winters then you'll need to dig the bulbs up and "force" them
into flower by putting them in the crisper section of your
fridge for a few weeks next April.
Pest alert! Use milk sprays for fungal problems by
diluting some milk with water at a rate of one part milk and 6
parts water. Keep it up every couple of days until it's
controlled. This is good for rust, black spot and mildews - in
fact, try it on anything that's got spots on it, it cant hurt!!
Use seaweed solution to strengthen soft new growth, it won't be
as easily affected by either pests or diseases.
Fruit fly becomes a problem from now on especially on tomatoes,
capsicum and fruit and they're particularly hard to control
organically. Use a combination of controls like lures to trap
male flies as a first measure, then use splash baits if
necessary on branches and leaves (not the fruit). Ask your
nursery for the traps and baits available. Always keep the
garden free of fallen fruits that harbour eggs and larvae, this
way you'll help stop the reproduction cycle.
Make a boundary of sawdust, coffee grounds or eggshells to deep
snails and slugs off garden beds.
Treat bean fly with pyrethrum if you have to but apply it at the
end of the day when the bees have gone home so they won't be
harmed by it. Dipel is great for tomato grubs too.
Fruit trees Scale can attack citrus and ornamental plants
so spray with white oil or pest oil to control it. It may take a
few applications to penetrate the hard shell before you see any
difference. Just make sure it's not a really hot day when you
apply it or you could scorch the leaves.
Give your strawberries plenty of liquid feed now to keep up good
supplies and vigorous new growth.
Don't overwater melons otherwise they'll be watery and tasteless.
Keep an eye on brown shrivelled fruit on stone fruit trees now
and get rid of them in the garbage. Don't compost diseased or
infested plant material. Give stone fruit good water and
nutrients as the fruit develops and the tree puts on new growth.
All next year's fruit will develop on this year's growth.
About the author:
Toni Salter is the 'Veggie Lady'. Her website contains free advice on what to do in the
garden, a planting
guide, organic pest and
disease control, featured plants and more each month.
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