Vegetables

Potatoes planted in August will be maturing and ready to eat for Christmas dinner.

Dig them just before using, two days ahead at most, because the immature tubers do not store well.

When left in the soil, they will continue growing and even a few extra weeks in the ground can produce a crop that is twice as heavy.

Maincrop potato plantings will be ready for a final earthingup. A dressing of sulphate of ammonia (50g per metre of row) will encourage the extra foliage growth necessary to convert sunlight into food materials.

All brassicas, including cabbages, cauliflowers and turnips, are a favourite food of white butterfly caterpillars and clouds of white butterflies can sometimes be seen over paddocks of swedes.

In the garden, white butterflies are seen from now until late autumn. They can be kept under control by treating plants with derris dust. Do not use plants within a week of dusting and wash thoroughly before eating.

Grey aphids spend the winter in small numbers on overwintering plants such as cabbages and Brussels sprouts, then multiply rapidly as the weather warms.

The bluishgrey colonies live on both sides of leaves, which can curl and twist as the pests’ sucking damages the tissues.

A simple spray of dishwashing liquid mixed with water (15ml dishwashing liquid to 1 litre of water) will help keep plants clean and healthy.

Small plants that have been badly attacked by aphids rarely recover and are best pulled out.

By now, no more asparagus should be cut, so the plants can build up food reserves in the roots for next season’s crop.

Weed or cultivate carefully among the plants (crowns) to avoid damaging the fine feeding roots.

The plants are most active at this time of the year and will benefit from a mulch of garden compost mixed with blood and bone manure (200g to a 10litre bucket of compost).

This mulch also helps keep weeds down. Harvesting peas after the beginning of February can be a challenge. By the second month of the year, many soils have become too dry for the plants to grow and the pods to fill.

Wet autumns are more favourable for peas, but even then there is some danger from fungal diseases.

Peas like their roots to be cool and kept moist, so it is almost impossible to produce a good crop of late peas on dry, shallow soils unless the area is well cultivated and plenty of humus is added.

After watering in dry weather, mulching with lawn clippings or compost will give peas a boost.