August Planting Guide

Although the weather is still cold we are beginning to get some days in the high teens with some beautiful sunshine. I love this time of year as it promises of better times to come. This is actually a busy time in the vegetable garden as we need to prepare for all our spring growing. This is our two fold month:

1. Starting our seeds

2. Feeding our soil

Direct Planting

Asparagus crowns (leave till the frost risk is over as they are frost tender)

Beetroot - seeds or seedlings

Carrots seeds

Kale

Leeks - seeds or seedlings

Lettuce - seeds or seedlings

Onions - seeds or seedlings

Peas

Potatoes

Radish

Rocket

Silverbeet - seeds or seedlings

Snow peas

Spinach - seeds or seedling

Spring onions - seedlings

Strawberries - runners

Start Seeds

Cabbage - I grow savoy cabbages for beautiful sweet coleslaw over summer.

Capsicums

Celery

Chilli's

Cucumber

Egg plant

Leeks

Lettuce

Pumpkin

Squash

Tomatoes

Watermelon

Zucchini

Feeding our soil

While our seeds are sprouting, it is time to feed all the natural microbes in our soil in preparation for our busy growing season. As the soil warms, all the natural microbes that are essential for breaking down nutrients to allow our plants to feed are also waking up. These microbes including worms need feeding to ensure we have healthy soil ready for the demands of our growing vegetables.

If you are planting out seeds or seedlings directly into the garden, I recommend a liquid fertiliser for a quicker uptake. If you are preparing your soil for planting in 4-6 weeks then a dry fertiliser is a good option for a gradual build up of microbes and nutrients. Which ever option you require and it maybe a bit of both I recommend that you always use organic or non chemical fertilisers. Chemical fertilisers do not feed the microbes but are manufactured as water soluble for direct uptake by the plant. These will give you rapid growth but the plants become weak and do not have natural resistance to disease and predator attack, the roots become shallow and the flavour disappears.

My go to for all my purchased fertilisers is Vasili's Garden products.