If your plot looks like mine there are still plenty of greens to harvest along with half a dozen plants going to seed in all directions.
If you’d like to keep this plot going you can start plugging in new seeds and seedlings now. As the plants are going to seed and drying off they aren’t competing for nutrients in the soil so you can plant in fresh seedlings tucked around them. Or turn your old square into a bean plot, dig up everything and sow beans to replenish the soil and start a new plot.
Saving your Seeds – If you have plants that have fully gone to seed, select the strongest looking plant and save its seeds for planting next season, pull off the seeds and store in a screw top jar. Once you’ve taken the seeds off pull out the plant … more green for your compost.
Enjoy the warm days by starting to prepare a new plot. The next Magic Square Metre planting will be when the soil warms up (my favourite) a Pasta/Pizza Plot – Basil, Tomatoes, Rocket, Aubergines, Capsicums, Chillies and Chives.
Spring is an exciting time for food gardening – Diana has lots of suggestions for planting right now –
, Great time to plant a salad supply – Lettuce (for plentiful looseleaf picking), Baby Spinach, Rocket, the Salad Mustards, Endives, the Asian veg such as Pak Choi, Mizuna, Mibuna, etc,
, still time for Broccoli and Kale and especially little spring Cabbages such as Sugar Loaf.
, Peas (can go in quickly now and catch the Spring boost), Beans (bush or climbing can begin and be planted all through the warmer season);
, Pumpkins as soon as the soil warms up a bit,
, Sweetcorn (nothing can beat a cob of corn straight out of the garden!),
, Celery (just one or two plants give ample Celery flavour when needed), Silver beets or colourful Swiss Chard.
, Spring and salad Onions, Leeks
, Root crops like Beetroots, Carrots (can be sown soon as soil warms up) and radishes are fun and quick to grow.
, Then there are the kitchen herbs – Parsley, Basil, Chives, Mint, Sage, Thyme, Chamomile…..
, If you’d like a potato patch now is a good time to start – fill a tub with soil, or make a big pile of soil and cover with compost and mulch to plug potatoes in.
, Not forgetting though to keep room for the summer abundance – tomatoes, basil, capsicum, chilli, aubergines and zucchini…(and a Magic Pizza Plot!)
Tori
We have a list of plants for our design and it would be greatly appreciated if people could donate plants if they have excess or are able to propagate/split them for our use. Please take a moment to read the list below and let me know what and how many you could spare for the garden.
LIST OF PLANTS FOR COMMUNITY GARDEN FRONTAGE
Some have now already been planted on this list
1 x Feijoa (pineapple guava)
1 x Meyer Lemon
1 x Mandarin (preferably Japanese Seedless)
2 x Chilean guava
5 x English Lavender
2 x French Lavender
10 x Italian Lavender
3 x Cherry guava (strawberry guava)
1 x Pepino
15 x Strawberries
6 x Ballerina Apples
1 x Brigitta Blueberry
3 x pineapple sage
1 x Sage
3 x Rosemary
Gap fillers (no particular numbers see how many we can get.)
thyme varieties (common, lemon, prostrate, pink carpet)
oregano
parsley
giant garlic
daylillies (Hemerocalis)
Camomile
Lemongrass
Chives and Garlic chives
Contact Carolyn for an update if you have any plants to donate