Autumn food crops in the south

I had a friend ask me what to plant in the vegetable garden now that Autumn is here. We will still have more warm days come and go for the next few weeks, so lets take advantage of them and get some veges growing!

Don't bother with starting from seed at this time of year, buy baby plants.  Asian veges, broad beans, frilly leaf lettuce, spinach, silverbeet, leeks.

Watch out for slugs and snails - 'Quash' pellets are pet/bird friendly to sprinkle around your new plants. Also a lemonade bottle with the bottom cut off is an easy and recycling way to make a mini cloche to press in the soil over each of your new plants and keeps the slugs away, plus the plants will grow faster. Water around it so the water soaks down to the roots. 

Microgreens are another quick and easy crop to grow in containers on your windowsill or sunny part of the garden. Try peas, beans, mustard, beetroot. See my previous blog on growing microgreens back in our first Covid lockdown in 2020. Spread the seeds fairly thickly across the container of seed raising mix and cover in a light layer of the mix. Dampen then cover with a couple old pages of newspaper.  They will sprout in a matter of days! Take the paper off when they sprout. Snip off what you need to liven up your meals, and let them continue to put on new growth to snip again in a week. Keep well watered.

 Happy gardening and stay healthy - with your own grown leafy greens and veges :-)