The last month of Winter has arrived and I am happy to commence the count down to warmer days. I am missing the sunshine and the energy that warmth brings to me and also to the garden. My Winter plants are not going to provide much of a harvest this year. To date we are collecting fennel, rocket and loads of lettuce, some bok choy but there is a noticeable absence of kale and the broccoli is still small, the first head should finally emerge this month. Last year I had a wall of kale that was waist high, this year there is not yet enough to collect for a meal!

The garlic also seems to be growing slower than usual. It looks healthy enough as do all the plants. Maybe it is because I have not been out there daily this season pottering around and chatting to the plants? No, I don’t do that but I do usually spend time weeding, propping things up, checking for pests and harvesting bits and pieces, removing yellowing leaves and generally pandering to every need of my bountiful garden!

Planting:

Not much is going in the ground at the moment. I will wait until the end of the month to get my Spring seeds started. For now there is a newly planted round of:

• Beetroot
• Fennel
• Carrot
• Lettuce

Harvesting:

• Bok Choy
• Capsicum
• Chilli
• Fennel
• Lettuce
• Peas
• Rocket
• Spinach

Yes it is strange that chilli and capsicum are still producing. I have not had plants go all the way from Spring through Winter and still be producing any other year. I am keen to know if you have experienced similar anomalies?

Jobs this month in the garden:

I was to dig in the green manure (oats) that I have growing in the raised beds but I don’t think it is quite ready yet. I will wait another month and check again for readiness at the end of this month. In the mean time those beds are looking very lush!

I did a soil pH test a few weeks ago to check the various garden beds and all were pretty much perfectly balanced except the blueberry beds are not acidic enough.  After I did a happy dance around the garden I checked for additional advice from my Facebook friends. My own method was clearly not producing adequate acidity for the blueberries. One of my lovely Facebook friends told me to go and get some Epsom Salt to correct it. That is at the top of my To Do list or I fear we will not have a good crop of berries this year. I am told that I need to add it as a dilution in water every two weeks and the retest the soil.  The blueberries are looking healthy and have lots of new growth but I know they will produce much better if I correct the soil.

Other things on my To Do list this month in the garden include:

• Review my seed collection to see if there is anything I need to get for Spring planting. I am heading out for a visit to my friends at Birdland Organic Seeds in a couple of weeks with my list of must have warm weather seeds.  I love that there is a quality, certified, organic producer just up the road from me.
• Late in the month I will start to plant some Spring seeds on the window ledge of the garage, protected from the wind and weather to bask in the sun that streams in the window.
• Weed the garden while the soil is soft and moist from Winter
• Turn the compost pile at least twice

 How has Winter treated your garden this year? Are you looking forward to Spring and the promise of fast new growth that it brings?

Please note: There are some exciting new changes coming to The Garden Share Collective. The Garden Share Collective will move to the end of each month, instead of the start from next month.  There will still be a link up but some changes will be introduced to make it even better and more interesting for participating blogger vegetable garden enthusiasts and home vegetable gardeners.

The Garden Share Collective was created by the very clever Lizzie from Strayed from the Table. Since it started it has grown to include bloggers from not only all around Australia, but all around the world. Stay tuned for some exciting new changes to the Collective. Join the Facebook group if you have not done so for more news soon.