Our monthly, edible gardening wrap-up, including what to plant in May

View this email in your browser

Has the drought broken? We hope so! This last week or so has seen all sorts of wild weather, wind, rain and plenty of sunshine. With more frequent rainfall, it's a good idea to revisit our blog on the importance of measuring rainfall. Check it out if you have a spare minute or two.

In Our Garden

Our brassica crops are growing well, but are being smashed by white cabbage moth. They're also covered in masses of small grey, sap sucking insects known as cabbage aphid. In small numbers neither of these pests will cause much damage. However, the weather conditions lately have been perfect for both species and in larger numbers, they are wreaking havoc in our garden.

Rather than squishing them all, I've been trying to relocate the cabbage moth to other plants that are less important to us. The idea is that by maintaining an abundance of these pests in the garden, predatory wasps will be encouraged to breed up and tackle the problem for me.

Another reason, I believe we're having such a problem in our garden, is that since we moved house, we haven't planted nasturtiums in our garden yet. White cabbage moth love nasturtiums and will often seek them out to lay their eggs on these plants instead of our brassicas.

As the weather turns colder, pest species such as aphids, whitefly and cabbage moth will become less of a problem. So try and avoid using sprays in the garden, if you can, and let nature take care of it for you.

How are your brassicas coming along? Please share some of your photos with us on our Facebook page, or via email.

Autumn is a time of bounty in the garden. Many apple and pear varieties are still being harvested. This week I had the good fortune of harvesting masses of persimmons from a neglected garden. Most persimmon trees have now lost their leaves and if they are still covered in fruit, they are an incredible ornamental feature of the garden.

Many of the citrus varieties are about to ripen on trees right across Melbourne. I'm getting very excited about harvesting many fruit, including tahitian limes, oranges, lemons and mandarins. If you want to select some citrus varieties for your garden, then our citrus guide has a list of many varieties and their approximate ripening times in Melbourne.

What's happening in your garden? Please keep us updated about your growing progress on our Facebook page, or via email.

Bare-Rooted Fruit Trees

With the onset of winter just weeks away, it's nearly time to start planting out bare-rooted fruit trees. Before you rush out and buy your plants, step back to plan and prepare for their arrival.

You'll need to dig and prepare the holes for them in advance. It's also important that you get the right rootstocks for your soil and gardening situation. Not all fruit trees are the same. I've put together this guide on rootstocks for grafted fruit trees, with a list of the best places from which to buy grafted fruit trees.

New Guinea Bean Competition

Congratulations to Paul Sargeant and his family. They are the winners of this years' Leaf, Root & Fruit Grow Challenge. Paul's son is very proud of his New Guinea Bean. It measures a whopping 155cm long!

We'll arrange for Paul and his family to receive a cool season vege pack thanks to Green Harvest Organic Gardening Supplies!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter the competition and share your photos with us.

We look forward to running a similar challenge again next summer. It may involve New Guinea Beans again, we may go back to Tromboncino's or we may try something entirely different! If you have any ideas for the next LRF Grow Challenge, then please let us know.

What to plant in May

As we move towards winter, our planting options start to lessen. There's still time to get some late brassicas and garlic planted. It’s important to remember that garlic, onions and leeks take a long time to reach maturity, and are not harvested until well into summer. So avoid planting it in a space you’ve earmarked for planting out in spring, or you’ll find your patch becomes double booked!

Here's our guide to some of the things you could consider planting this month:

Leaf

You can start a herb garden during most of the year. Try growing the following and save yourself a heap of money usually spent on those over-packaged bunches of herbs at the supermarket:

Thyme
Sage
Parsley
Mint
Curry plant
Rosemary
Coriander
Chives
Oregano
Spring onions

Leafy greens will grow well in the garden at the moment. Consider allocating space to these quick growing, very productive plants and start getting ready for lots of home-grown salads in 6 to 8 weeks time.

Lettuce
Spinach
Rocket
Endive
Silverbeet
Mustard Greens
Celery
Chervil

Root

The following root veggies can be planted in May:

Radishes
Parsnips
Onions
Garlic
Leek

Fruit

Most fruiting plants are grown over the summer. The exceptions are the following which can be planted in May:

Broad beans
Peas

Winter Brassica Crops

There's still time to get some late brocolli and cauliflower planted. I would avoid plants like Brussels sprouts and cabbage. They wont have time to develop fully, before summer arrives and makes them bolt (set flower and go to seed).

Broccoli
Cauliflower
Kohlrabi
Kale

Please read our autumn planting guide for more details on planting out your winter veggies.

If you're new to edible gardening, we also suggest that you read our Philosophy of Edible Gardening before starting. It might save you a bit of time and frustration by avoiding preventable crop failures.

Other Stuff....

May starts off with a flurry of gardening related events. Some of you might like to celebrate "World Naked Gardening Day" on Saturday? There a few events in Victoria on Sunday to mark "International Permaculture Day".

If you know of any other upcoming gardening events, please let me know so that I can include it in future editions of the newsletter.

Looking for a last minute gift idea for Mum on Mothers Day? What about the Gardening with Soul DVD?

Some of our regular clients may have noticed a new urban farmer visiting their garden lately. As our reputation for quality service grows, so does our client base. Leaf, Root & Fruit are continuing to grow and are pleased to welcome James to the team. James will be involved in plenty of ongoing garden maintenance and urban farming for our regular clients. He will also be assisting with garden makeovers and garden bed installations.

James is enthusiastic, handy with an impact driver and has a great deal of knowledge of native and indigenous plants. His addition to the team allows LRF to expand, while continuing to deliver the high quality product and services that we are renowned for.

Welcome to the team James!

Please forward this email on to any of your friends or family that might find this planting guide helpful.

Good Luck & Happy Gardening!

Duncan

Facebook

Website

Forward