September

“Spring is nature’s way of saying ‘Lets PARTY!'”                  – Robin Williams –

SPRING! It is my favourite time of the year and although in my area of northern NSW it may only feel like it lasts about 2weeks, I really do treasure it. Warmer, longer days, flowers coming out everywhere and a great new chance to plant next seasons veggies – what’s not to love.

Things are certainly happening in the veggie patch at the moment but it has not all been flowers and rainbows. I have been planting furiously but unfortunately there has been a horrible, hot, gale force wind that has been blowing for the last 3 weeks. The wind has burnt off almost all my pumpkin, squash, tomato and bean seedlings as they were coming out of the ground. The corn and a few older seedlings I bought have survived, just.. and surprisingly the last of the winter veg hung on better than I thought. I was sure that they were all going to bolt to seed but I still have my fingers crossed for a late crop of broccoli and cauliflower.

If nothing else this wind has really proved to me that I must get my wind break going. The wind has been the biggest issue at the moment and I aim to have a decent and functional wind break in so next summer my first round of seedlings don’t suffer a similar fate during the August/ September winds!

I have tossed around many ideas of what plants I should use as my wind break and I have decided that I will grow a predominantly native hedge that will run down the Northern and Eastern boundaries of the veggie patch. I have chosen a few flowering gum tress, a number of different grevilleas and some fast growing wattles. As these are all evergreen they will provide year round shelter and also the added bonus as they will attract birds and bees to my garden and really add to the diversity of the space.

This little polly tunnel was made and designed with the idea that I could get the jump on my summer vegetables and protect them from any late frosts and it worked a treat. I planted tomatoes under it and they all came up and were looking good, frost risk was over so I removed it… wrong thing to do… What I should of done is leave it there longer to protect my seedlings for the relentless winds as all but 2 of them were wiped out. Next year I will do it again but leave it there until the tomatoes are much bigger, this way they might withstand the 33ºC / 60km winds?

So the current situation is that I am about 3weeks behind in where I thought my veggies would be; however, many lessons learnt and fingers crossed the wind has given up a little and the rain comes down.

(oh and I couldn’t help myself… I did get some new materials to start the 3rd and final stage of the veggie garden… Will update next month)

Happy Gardening!