Vege patch to-do list
This month’s moon calendar, and edible crops to sow and tend now
• Pick, eat, preserve, pickle and enjoy!
February is probably the most abundant month in my garden with all sorts of fruit and veges ripe and ready to eat: beans, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants, spuds, cucumbers, sweet corn, plums, peaches, figs, passionfruit and more. Some crops can hold on the plant for a short while, but in general you are best to harvest what is ready each day and eat it fresh, or freeze, dry or otherwise preserve it to enjoy in less prolific months.
• Keep an eye on your worm farm.
Worms like the same temperature range as people – they will feed more, grow faster and breed more quickly if kept between 16oC and 27oC. Once the temperature gets above that, they will start to slow down and move into the cooler lower trays, and if it tops 35oC the composting tiger worms will die or set out in search of a new home. Make sure your worm farm is in a shady spot with good airflow and ideally out of direct sun (especially if it’s a black plastic model which heats up like an oven). Use a soil thermometer to test the temperature inside if you are not sure. Keep an eye on the temperature in winter too – if you see the worms clustering together like a ball then it’s too low (they are actually huddling together for warmth!)
• Start sowing shoulder season crops.
Your summer crops might still be going strong but it’s a good idea to sow a round of spinach, silverbeet, broad beans and peas now. Start them in trays, and they should be ready to transplant in about a month and will fill in all the gaps when you start uprooting your summer crops. You can sow a shoulder season round of beetroot, carrots and coriander too, but sow direct as none appreciate being transplanted. In warmer places sow dwarf beans and runner beans for autumn harvest, and sow radish and lettuce seed (but keep them moist). If you didn’t get around to it last month – or have room for successive planting of such space hungry crops! – sow brassicas in trays for winter planting, but protect from white cabbage butterfly.
• As the saying goes: rust never sleeps.
And nor do other fungal infections! Look out for rust (orange spots) on beans and mint, powdery mildew (a white or grey film on leaves) on pumpkins, courgettes and melons, and late blight (yellowing leaves and mouldy patches on the stem) on toms. You can try and treat it when you see it, but fungal infections are all but inevitable in late summer, so I just pull affected plants out and use the space for something else!