These plantings are snail-damaged but fine to eat. Photo: Wynlen House.
The region has experienced a few frosts so far but the cold snap at the beginning of this month has certainly countered the effects of a relatively mild autumn in our cold climate region.
In our location, we still had a few tomatoes planted in a very protected spot (no frost), left ripening under frost mitigation cloth. They got harvested last week. They were left on the vine and covered as a bit of an experiment testing the potential benefits of a warm autumn.
The outcome was rather surprising and we still can’t believe we are eating our own fresh tomatoes, which have ripened on the window sill, in June!
As for everything else – and I refer to those vegetables that haven’t been attacked by hungry snails, late-hatched cabbage caterpillars or aphids – the plants have been relishing the warm sunny autumn days and the slow damp start to winter.
The kale trees (there were two planted last autumn) are now as tall as I am and the leafy greens such as pac choi and butter lettuce are growing very strongly under frost protection.
Snails and slugs are a particular problem in our garden. On nearly every plant a hatching of baby snails can be found high in the leaves, far from the ground where copious amounts of organic snail bait have been laid to destroy them. As a result we have resorted to picking them off by hand, which is tedious but definitely satisfying.
The other flourishing pest is the rabbit. Despite the rabbit-proof fencing that surrounds our veggie patch, the rabbits have found their way in. They have eaten three cabbages that were ready to harvest, all the parsley, the middle out of a number of broccoli plants, a few lettuces and the bok choy, as well as nearly all the seedlings planted in early May.
Although we are basically in suburbia there are pockets of bushland nearby where rabbits are clearly thriving.
What to do? The only action to take in a built up area is to erect stronger fencing. We have chosen rigid steel mesh panels hammered into the soil at some depth surrounding the vegetable garden. In our semi suburban area rabbit numbers are out of control. Graziers and commercial vegetable growers on the edges of the ACT must be frustrated to see rabbit numbers growing so quickly. Resistance to viral biological controls is obviously on the rise.
Planting in winter is always a bit of a challenge: rabbits, possums and insect pests included. It is cold, often windy and most vegetable plants need to be covered with frost mitigation fabrics to get the best result for effort.
There is no point planting anything as seeds direct in the garden at this time of year as soil temperatures are very low and inhibit germination. However, it is still possible to plant seedlings.
The kale trees are doing well. Photo: Wynlen House.
If you have the inclination to keep growing and have spaces that are 1 m long and 80 cm wide, there is a system of planting to try which will give you variety in the most efficient way possible.
It is also an example of a succession planting that could be repeated for each of the winter months. The planting can be doubled or tripled depending on the size of your family and eating preferences.
You will need to go shopping for seedlings of broccolini, Asian greens (pak choi, bok choy, mizuna, mibuna) or lettuce (mixed winter lettuce such as butter, frilly or endive, radicchio), English spinach, leeks and cabbage (red or savoy).
Divide your 1 m x 80 cm space into four rows. In the first row plant three broccolini 30 cm apart and in the same row, in the spaces in between, plant one Asian green or lettuce (four asian greens or lettuces in total).
In the fourth row on the other side of the bed plant three cabbages 50 cm apart – one at the start and end of the metre row and one in the middle. Plant two Asian greens or lettuce types between each cabbage. In the middle of the bed plant 10 leeks, 10 cm apart. In the space between the leek row and the cabbage row you can plant a row of lettuces and/or Asian greens, 20 cm apart, or a row of beetroot (10 cm apart) or Kohl rabi (20 cm apart).
This is a planting mix developed by us at Wynlen House Farm based on cold climate vegetable growing and a system called biointensive polyculture.
Bed preparation needs to ensure the soil is more nutrient enriched than a conventional planting merely because this system packs more plants in one space than is usual. It takes advantage of each vegetable’s growing habit (shape as it grows) and time to harvest, to ensure that the small quicker growing vegetables are ready to harvest before the larger longer growing vegetables need the space that the fast growers occupy.
Compost, complete fertiliser, a little well aged animal manure and lime/dolomite are essential. Cover the space in frost mitigation fabric and sit back and relax, you can start eating the quick growing leafy greens in around six to eight weeks depending on the weather. The rest you can eat whenever you think they are of an eating size.
