A Vegetable Garden Year

Autumn - The final chapter

Welcome to the final part of A Year in our Vegetable Garden. Summer has finished and in our temperate climate the nights are getting crisp, the sun seems to be setting earlier and there are obvious changes in the vigour of the garden.

Our previous Onion bed has been dormant for a month or so now and was the last to have it's soil level raised/improved. It was, like all the others, heavily composted with Horse Manure which has been left to break down further. This bed, due to other crop rotation factors will become our Cucurbit bed next spring/summer. To give it a boost, it will grow a green manure crop to boost the soil further and ensure plenty of rotted organic matter, a favorite of these plants.

Broad Beans - the best of both worlds

Here's a trick to maximising your production! This bed, as we have mentioned will grow a green manure crop over Autumn and Winter. Typically, a green manure crop will include a range of seeds from various "grasses" like rye and oats, but quite often some legumes as well. I usually have peas and tic beans.
This season, we are going to establish our Broad Beans earlier and grow them within the green manure. They will tower over the green manure, and once harvested, meet the fate of the the green manure. A sharp shovel, and a good digging in.

Here you can see, rather than direct sowing, the seeds were germinated in biodegradable seedling pots. These will be planted complete, no need to disturb the roots that are already visible, breaking through.

Stop by this page again soon! There's lots more to come..

We're having an "unseasonal" Indian Summer here in Melbourne and this has delayed the normal Autumn Vegetable Garden jobs, so we'll have more updates soon.

Coming Soon:

• Autumn & Winter sowing
• Autumn "clean ups"
• Green Manure
• Preserving the last of the harvest

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