Gardening Notes - January

Dear gardening friends

I hope the Christmas and New Year period has been a restorative one for you, whatever your faith or world view. My facebook feed has been full of happy family scenes, though I know it is not always peace and joy in the bosom of the family!

It's been very productive in my garden, in the midst of the berry season, especially on the boysenberry front - summer puddings, red currant jelly, country wine fermenting away in the big jar on my kitchen table and a freezer bursting with frozen berries of all sorts. The scarlet runner beans are setting the the bright red flowers are quite a display in their own right. Tomatoes are swelling. All the chooks are laying. All seems well with the world while I'm in the garden.  I hope you are enjoying yourselves there too.

Thank you, as ever, to Greg S for the planting notes.

JANUARY	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
French Bush Beans (last chance)	x
Swedes (last chance)	x
Turnips		x	x	x
Shallots/Spring Onions	x	x
Lettuce (last chance to grow to decent size)	x	x	x
Cauliflower   P to G	x
Cabbage        P to G	x
Broccoli        P to G	x
Cabbage (direct seedlings small style cabbages)	x	x	x
Punnets
Cauliflower	x
Lettuce - last chance before winter	x	x

Best wishes

Margaret

Margaret's Gardening Notes - December

Dear gardening friends

More rain over night and my garden, overplanted as is my custom,  is a dense mass of green growth. I was half hoping for small plum and boysenberry crops this year but looks like bumper ones again. 

 

The front garden has been full of flowers - self-sown or perennial. I'm planting more salvias which are really sturdy and flower extravagantly. (I have a gorgeous purple salvia near my letter box if you are walking at the top of Goulburn St. It makes me happy!).

I'm off out to stake tomatoes and net the boysenberries.  I hope you are having fun in your gardens.

 

Here are Greg's notes for December in WeHo:

DECEMBER	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Silverbeet - punnet, pot to ground, or direct seeding	x	x	x	x
Brussel Sprouts - punnet, pot to ground or direct seeding		x	x	x
Kale - punnet, pot to ground or direct seeding		x	x	x
Cabbage - punnet, pot to ground or direct seeding		x	x	x
Brocolli - for March		x	x
Swedes	x	x	x	x
Shallots/Spring Onions	x	x	x	x
Lettuce	x	x	x	x
Kohlrai	x	x	x	x
French Bush Beans	x	x	x	x
Climbing Beans - Last chance as on the limit.	x
Cauliflower		x	x	x
Sweetcorn - last chance as on the limit.	x

Punnets
Lettuce	x           x		x	x
Brocolli - punnets or pots for winter	x		x
Cabbage - punnets or pots for winter	x		x
Cauliflower - punnets or pots for winter		x	x

Margaret's Gardening Notes - October

Hello gardeners

October sneaked up on me!

Potatoes are in and some scarlet runner beans and tomatoes - both grown from seed saved from last year. I am going to try some purple sweetcorn this year - a heritage variety that is supposed to be a bit tolerant of cool weather. My seeds have come from Seed Freaks who are local seed folk - Google them.

The winter brassicas are extravagantly in flower, which I'm feeding to the chooks, who are all laying again, what little heroines! 

So here are Greg's WeHo planting notes for October.  Have fun!

 

OCTOBER	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Beetroot - large direct sowing for winter Feb to Oct.				x
Carrot - large direct sowing for winter Feb to Oct.				x
Shallots/Spring onions	x	x	x	x
Sweetcorn - pregerminate then sow direct	x	x	x	x
Lettuce - Direct seeding and punnet to ground.	x	x	x	x
Runner Beans		x	x	x
French Bush Beans				x
Kohlrabi	x	x	x	x
Tomatoes - outdoors punnet to ground				x
Zucchini- pots to ground. Put juice bottle over plants		x	x	x
Cucumbers				x
- pregerminate then plant in glasshouse in protected area
Radish	x	x	x	x
Punnets
Lettuce	x	x	x	x
Basil	x	x
Leeks - for harvesting Feb to October. Plant a lot.	x	x	x
Zucchini - pregerminate and plant in pots in propagator.	x	x	x	x

Margaret

In the Garden - August 2018

Here's Margaret's gardening update for the month, as insightful and encouraging as ever (thankyou!).

Dear gardening friends

The oxalis, sticky weed and forget-me-nots are making their annual comeback, the asparagus is up (late July is a record earliness for my garden) and the tomato seeds are hopefully quietly germinating in my sun-space.  The currawongs have visited to clean out the last apples on the trees. I'm eating my way through the many bottles of plums from the bumper summer '18 crop with the expectation that the coming summer will be a a much more sparse one. The chooks are one by one coming back into laying. The days are visibly lengthening. And there have been 3 planets in the night sky easy to see.

I love the seasons. But my email today had a stark reminder of how out of kilter we are on a global scale:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/earth-overshoot-day-humans-fossil-fuels-natural-resources-date-year-a8471121.html

I reckon our gardens are one of the simplest and best ways of restoring the balance.

 

Here are Greg's Planting Notes for August. Lots of potential here!

 

AUGUST	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Parsnip - keep damp 3 weeks plus to germinate			x	x
Carrot - keep damp for 3 weeks,  start picking mid Dec	x	x	x	x
Radish	x	x	x	x
Beetroot - not too many as often goes to seed Nov/Dec	x	x	x	x
Shallots/Spring onions	x	x	x	x
Celeriac - keep damp 3 weeks plus for Autum/Winter	x	x	x	x
Mini Cauliflower "Garant" - punnet into ground	x	x
Lettuce - direct seeding and punnet into ground	x	x	x	x
Sugar Snap Pea and Snow Pea - 3rd planting.	x
pregerminate then sow direct. Protect from birds to 100mm
Punnets
Tomatoes - for greenhouse only	x	x	x
Celeriac - keep damp 3 weeks plus	x	x
Capsicum - for greenhouse planting only		x	x
Lettuce	x	x	x	x

Love our streets West Hobart - Street Party! - Sat 30 June

Come along to a celebration of living in West Hobart.  Meet old and new friends and neighbours!  See who's doing what, and join in!

Fun activities for all to enjoy include:  a kids' area (designed by local kids), gardening stalls, book & music exchange, yummy food, clothing swap, e-bike show and tell, plus a busking & performing stage. 

There will be stalls and activities presented by us (WHEN), Lansdowne Crescent School, the Council's Love Our Streets West Hobart team, and others.  

We'll be hosting a Gardening stall - bring any surplus plants or seed to share.  

We'll also be hosting an E-bikes Show and Tell  - have you been thinking about getting an e-bike to conquer West Hobart's hills?  Talk to people who do it and love it, to find out how.  If you already ride an e- bike, do bring it along and swap tales.


For updates follow the Facebook group 'Love our Streets West Hobart' or check out www.hobartcity.com.au/westhobartevent.

SEE YOU THERE!!!!

Gardening notes - December

December planting notes

Sorry these are a little late, but then again we've lost a few days to incessant rain!

DECEMBER	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Silverbeet - punnet, pot to ground, or direct seeding	x	x	x	x
Brussel Sprouts - punnet, pot to ground or direct seeding		x	x	x
Kale - punnet, pot to ground or direct seeding		x	x	x
Cabbage - punnet, pot to ground or direct seeding		x	x	x
Brocolli - for March		x	x
Swedes	x	x	x	x
Shallots/Spring Onions	x	x	x	x
Lettuce	x	x	x	x
Kohlrai	x	x	x	x
French Bush Beans	x	x	x	x
Climbing Beans - Last chance as on the limit.	x
Cauliflower		x	x	x
Sweetcorn - last chance as on the limit.	x
Punnets
Lettuce	x	x	x	x
Brocolli - punnets or pots for winter		x	x
Cabbage - punnets or pots for winter		x	x
Cauliflower - punnets or pots for winter		x	x

November in the garden

Planting notes for November, from West Hobart gardener Greg S.

NOVEMBER Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Beetroot - large direct sowing for winter  x Carrot - large direct sowing cropping Feb to Oct. x x Swedes - for winter x Shallots/Spring onions x x x x Climbing Beans  x x x French Bush Beans x x x x Sweetcorn -  x x x x as ground is warmer, can dispense with pregermination Silverbeet - for winter x Leeks - punnet to ground x x x Kohlrabi x x x x Brussel Sprouts and Kale - direct seeding x Zucchini- pots to ground.  x x x Basil - punnet to ground  x x x x Punnets or Individual Pots Brussel Sprouts x x Lettuce x x Silverbeet - for winter x x Brocolli x x Cabbage x

Gardening notes for July

Here are the July notes from Greg Summers:

JULY	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Broad Beans (2nd planting) Takes a month to show	x	x	x	x
English Spinach (no punnets - direct seeding only)	x	x	x	x
Shallots/Spring Onions	x	x	x	x
Small Cabbages - punnet into ground	x
Small Cabbages - direct seeding	x
Mini Cauliflower "Garant" - punnet into ground	x	x	x	x
Lettuce - direct seeding	x	x	x	x
Radish				x
Punnets
Lettuce - punnet into ground when ready	x	x	x	x

Keep warm and happy gardening.

Margaret

What's happening in the garden - June

Dear Garden friends The garlic is in and some bulbs are sprouting, the fruit tree pruning is almost done - such a big job. I'm raking up leaves from the street to add to the compost and to spread on the garden beds. Lots of lovely garden work!  I hope you are having fun too. Here are June's notes. JUNE Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Broad Beans (2nd planting) x Sugar Snap peas (2nd planting) pregerminate then sow x Snowpea (2nd planting) x direct sow and protect from birds until 100mm high Garlic bulbs  x x English Spinach (no Punnets - direct seeding only) x x

Margaret.